^ 


The  Sesquicentennial  of  Brown  University 
1764-1914 


The  Sesquicentennial 
of 

BROWN  UNIVERSITY 

1764-1914 

zA  Commemoration 


Published  by  the  University 
1915 


D.  B.  UPDIKE  THE  MERRYMOUNT  PRESS,  BOSTON 


Into  this  Liberal  t?  Catholic  Institution  shall  never  be 
admitted  any  Religious  Tests  but  on  the  Contrary  all  the 
Members  hereof  shall  for  ever  en  joy  full  free  Absolute 
and  uninterrupted  Liberty  of  Conscience  .  .  .  Youths  of 
all  Religious  Denominations  shall  and  may  be  freely  ad- 
mitted to  the  Equal  Advantages  Emoluments  Ss?  Honors 
of  the  College  or  University . 

FROM  THE  CHARTER  OF    1764 


31406? 


Note 

THE  Corporation  at  the  adjourned  Annual  Meeting  held 
on  Friday,  October  16,  1914, 
"  Voted:  That  a  committee  of  five,  of  which  the  Chairmen  of 
the  General  Committee  and  of  the  Committee  on  the  Academic 
Programme  shall  be  two,  the  remaining  three  to  be  selected  by 
the  President,  shall  be  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  finan- 
cing, publication,  and  distribution  of  a  report  of  the  exercises 
and  festivities  attendant  upon  the  celebration  of  the  one  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  University." 
The  committee  as  finally  constituted  was  made  to  consist  of 
Mr.  Henry  D.  Sharpe,  Professor  William  MacDonald,  Rev. 
Henry  M.  King,  Professor  Walter  G.  Everett,  and  Professor 
Albert  K.  Potter.  On  March  1, 1915,  the  committee  requested 
Mr.  William  V.  Kellen,  '72,  to  edit  this  record.  The  editor  is 
chiefly  indebted  to  the  vivid  and  accurate  reports  of  ' '  The 
Providence  Journal"  for  the  story  of  the  celebration. 


Contents 

PAGE 

Note  vii 

Commemorative  Sketch  3 

University  Sermon  33 

President  Faunce  35 

The  Religious  History  of  the  University  50 

Dr.  Barbour  50 

Bishop  Burgess  51 

President  Horr  61 

Dr.  Anderson  73 

President  Mullins  75 

President  Sharpless  83 

President  Thomas  100 

Bishop  Perry  110 

The  Celebration  Play  119 

Early  Years  of  Brown  University  126 

Dr.  Keen  127 

The  Torchlight  Procession  159 

Historical  Address  and  Presentation  of  Delegates  162 

Address:  Justice  Hughes  164 

Presentation  of  Delegates  198 

C  ix  •] 


Contents 

Concert  by  the  Mendelssohn  Glee  Club  204 

University  Address  and  Conferring  of  Degrees  206 

Address:  Principal  Peterson  206 

Conferring  of  Degrees  225 

Andrews  Field  Athletic  Exercises  230 

The  University  Dinner  233 

Dr.  Keen  233 

Governor  Pothier  235 

President  Lowell  237 

Archdeacon  Cunningham  240 

Ambassador  Naon  244 

Mr.  Robert  Cooper  Smith  247 

Mr.  Taft  253 

President  Faunce  257 

Congratulatory  Addresses  265 

Courses  of  Lectures  305 


c  X : 


I 

A  Commemorative  Sketch 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

BROWN  University  was  incorporated  on  March 
3, 1764,  under  "the  Name  of  Trustees  and  Fel- 
lows of  the  College  or  University  in  the  English  Col- 
ony of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations  in 
New  England  in  America,  the  Trustees  and  Fellows  at 
any  Time  hereafter  giving  such  more  particular  Name 
to  the  College  in  Honor  of  the  greatest  and  most  dis- 
tinguished Benefactor  or  otherwise  as  they  shall  think 
proper."  Nicholas  Brown,  the  first  of  that  name,  was 
one  of  the  incorporators,  as  well  as  one  of  the  first  trus- 
tees of  the  college. 

Rhode  Island  College  was  the  popular  name  given 
the  new  institution,  and  Warren,  a  little  village  on  the 
eastern  shore  of  Narragansett  Bay,  midway  between 
Newport  and  Providence,  became  its  temporary  home. 
On  February  8,  1770,  the  Corporation  finally  fixed 
upon  Providence  as  the  site  of  the  college,  and  there 
"The  College  Edifice"  was  erected.  Subsequently,  on 
September  6,  1804,  "the  greatest  and  most  distin- 
guished Benefactor"  of  the  charter  having  appeared 
in  the  person  of  the  second  Nicholas  Brown,  a  son  of 
the  incorporator  and  a  graduate  of  the  class  of  1 786, 
the  Corporation  voted  "  that  this  College  be  called  and 
known  in  all  future  time  by  the  Name  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity." The  subsequent  interest  of  the  second  Nicho- 
las Brown  in  the  college,  as  shown  by  personal  devo- 
tion and  timely  gifts,  served  but  to  emphasize  his  right 
to  the  title  of  Benefactor ;  and  his  son,  John  Carter 
Brown,  of  the  class  of  1816,  the  Founder,  and  his  son 
in  turn,  John  Nicholas  Brown,  of  the  class  of  1885,  the 

c  3  ] 


Brown  University 

donor  of  the  John  Carter  Brown  Library,  worthily  car- 
ried on  the  tradition. 

As  the  sesquicentennial  of  the  University  drew  near, 
the  Corporation,  at  its  meeting  on  June  18, 1908,  voted 
that  a  temporary  committee  of  five  members, "  to  con- 
sist of  one  Fellow,  two  Trustees,  and  two  members 
of  the  Faculty,  be  appointed  by  the  President  and  the 
Chancellor  acting  conjointly,  to  consider  preliminary 
plans  for  the  fitting  celebration  of  the  One  Hundred 
and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Univer- 
sity." At  the  adjourned  annual  meeting  of  that  year,  in 
October,  such  committee  was  appointed:  of  the  Fellows, 
Rowland  Gibson  Hazard, '76;  of  the  Trustees,  the  Rev. 
Henry  Melville  King,  and  Henry  Dexter  Sharpe,  '94; 
and  of  the  Faculty,  Professor  William  MacDonald, 
and  Professor  Walter  G.  Everett,  '85.  This  committee, 
through  its  chairman,  Mr.  Hazard,  made,  from  time 
to  time,  reports  of  progress,  which  led  to  the  following 
action  by  the  Corporation  at  the  adjourned  fall  meet- 
ing of  October  13, 1909:  "Voted:  That  the  temporary 
committee  be  continued  as  a  Committee  to  have  charge 
of  the  Celebration  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth 
Anniversary  of  the  University,  with  power  to  add  to  its 
number  and  appoint  sub-committees,  and  expend  any 
money  appropriated  for  that  purpose."  Of  the  Cele- 
bration Committee  thus  constituted,  the  President  of 
Brown  University,  the  Rev.  William  Herbert  Perry 
Faunce,  of  the  class  of  1880,  became  a  member  ex 
officio.  Subsequently  Mr.  Sharpe  became  chairman  of 
the  committee. 

This  Celebration  Committee  fixed  upon  the  period 
from  Sunday,  October  1 1 ,1914,  to  Thursday,  October 
15,  1914,  inclusive,  as  the  most  appropriate  time  for 

c  4  ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

celebrating  the  academic  festival.  Pending  the  elabo- 
ration of  plans  for  the  celebration,  various  publications 
relating  to  the  University  were  issued  to  herald  the 
approaching  festival. 

The  first  of  these  vs^as  "The  Historical  Catalogue 
of  Brown  University,"  issued  in  June,  1914,  in  a  new 
edition  brought  down  to  date  by  Louise  Prosser  Bates, 
A.M.,  Keeper  of  Graduate  Records.  This  revised  edi- 
tion contains  the  names  of  all  persons  ever  associated 
with  the  University  as  officers  or  students,  graduate 
and  non-graduate,  so  far  as  ascertainable,  with  a  brief 
account  of  the  career  of  each.  The  names  of  all  officers 
and  graduates  of  "The  Women's  College  in  Brown 
University,"  which  was  established  by  action  of  the 
Corporation  at  the  annual  meeting  of  September,  1 891 , 
are  also  included  in  this  catalogue. 

"The  History  of  Brown  University,!  764-1914,"  by 
Walter  C.  Bronson,Litt.D.,of  the  class  of  1887,  Pro- 
fessor of  English  Literature,  fresh  from  the  press  in 
September  of  the  latter  year,  formed  the  second  of  the 
commemorative  volumes  "published  under  the  gen- 
eral supervision  of  the  Committee  in  charge  of  the  Cel- 
ebration." This  scholarly  and  exhaustive  story  of  the 
growth  of  the  University  is,  as  set  forth  by  the  author, 
"intended  chiefly  for  its  graduates,  and  some  of  the 
contents  will  have  little  interest  for  other  readers.  The 
effort  has  been  made  to  portray  the  University  in  all  its 
aspects — not  merely  as  a  gallery  of  academic  worthies, 
or  an  educational  experiment  station,  or  a  stage  where 
men  now  grave  and  reverend  disported  themselves  in 
thoughtless  mirth,  or  an  athletic  and  social  club,  but 
as  all  these  and  more.  Even  to  graduates,  therefore, 
some  parts  of  the  narrative  will  appeal  less  strongly 

c  5  ] 


Brown  University 

than  others;  but  it  seemed  more  essential  to  give  a  just 
account  of  the  University  as  a  whole  than  to  rivet  the 
attention  of  every  reader  to  every  page/' 

The  Committee  of  Management  of  the  John  Carter 
Brown  Library,  consisting  of  President  Faunce,  Mrs. 
John  Nicholas  Brown,  Robert  Hale  Ives  Goddard,  '58, 
Stephen  Ostrom  Edwards,  '79,  and  William  Vail  Kel- 
len,'72,  published  a  monograph  on  that  notable  collec- 
tion as  its  share  in  the  sesquicentennial  festival.  Under 
the  title  of  "The  John  Carter  Brown  Library,  a  His- 
tory," the  Librarian,  George  Parker  Winship,  traced 
the  family  history  of  the  founder,  emphasized  him  as  a 
"  Collector,"  rehearsed  the  making  of  the  famous"  Cat- 
alogue," described  the  founder's  accomplished  wife  and 
co-worker,  sympathetically  portrayed  John  Nicholas 
Brown,  the  donor,  and  sketched  the  growth  of  the 
library  since  it  became  a  part  of  Brown  University. 

The  portrait  of  George  L.  Littlefield,  a  conspicuous 
benefactor  of  the  University,  was  painted  by  Mr.  Wal- 
ter C.  Loring  under  a  vote  of  the  Corporation,  in  recog- 
nition of  his  signal  service  to  the  University  and  as  an 
anniversary  token.  This  vivid  portrait  of  a  vigorous 
Rhode  Islander  was  hung  among  those  of  other  college 
worthies  early  in  the  autumn  of  1914  in  Sayles  Memo- 
rial Hall. 

By  invitation  of  the  University,  the  American  Mathe- 
matical Society  held  its  annual  meeting  in  Providence, 
in  September,  1914,  and  added  its  congratulatory  note 
in  advance  of  the  festival. 

The  University  Library,  the  John  Carter  Brown  Li- 
brary, the  Providence  Public  Library,  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society,  and  the  Rhode  Island  School  of  De- 
sign, through  harmonious  cooperation,  arranged  com- 

L   61 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

memorative  exhibitions,  each  with  its  own  distinctive 
note,  to  be  held  in  Providence  during  the  autumn  in 
anticipation  of  the  academic  celebration  and  sympa- 
thetically grouped  about  it. 

The  University  Library  in  its  model  home,  the  John 
Hay  Library  Building,  displayed  a  collection  of  early 
historical  documents  and  relics  relating  to  the  Univer- 
sity, including  the  petition  to  the  General  Assembly 
for  the  charter,  divers  drafts  of  the  charter  itself,  and, 
finally, the  charter  as  engrossed  and  signed;  early  cata- 
logues; the  University  seals;  and  portraits  and  other 
memorials  of  famous  Brown  graduates,  including  man- 
uscript letters  and  unpublished  poems  by  John  Hay. 
There  were  also  specimens  of  student  publications  from 
"  The  Brunonian  "of  1 830  to  the  current "  Brown  Daily 
Herald,"  together  with  copies  of  the  famous  mock  pro- 
grammes. Memorials  of  the  administrations  of  all  the 
Presidents  of  the  University  were  effectively  displayed. 
Here  were  shown  President  Manning's  mahogany  writ- 
ing-desk ;  the  chair  in  which  Horace  Mann  sat  when 
a  student  at  Brown ;  and  the  old  table,  in  the  drawer  of 
which  the  College  Library  was  kept  during  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution.  Here  might  also  be  seen  Adoniram 
Judson's  ''Translation  of  the  Bible  into  Burmese," 
and  the  writings  of  other  Brown  missionaries.  Two 
maps,  showing  the  extent  of  Providence  at  the  time  of 
the  location  of  the  college  there,  and  an  early  view 
of  the  college  showing  only  University  Hall  and  Presi- 
dent Manning's  house,  were  among  the  rarities. 

The  John  Carter  Brown  Library  had  an  anniversary 
exhibition  designed  to  show  some  of  the  finest  and  most 
interesting  of  the  books  and  manuscripts  in  that  re- 
markable collection.  Here  were  original  editions  of  the 

C  7] 


Brown  University 

famous  Columbus  letter  printed  in  i493,  as  well  as  of 
the  Americus  Vespucius  tract  on  "The  New  World." 
Caxton,  the  first  English  printer,  was  represented  by 
a  copy  of  "The  Royal  Book,"  printed  in  1484.  Beside  it 
appeared  Boccaccio's  "  De  la Ruine  des Nobles  Hommes 
et  Femmes,"  printed  in  1476  by  Colard  Mansion;  the 
first  folio  Shakespeare;  a  fragment  of  the  Gutenberg 
Bible;  the  first  and  second  editions  of  Milton's  "  Para- 
dise Lost,"  and  the  first  edition  of"  Paradise  Regained." 
There  were  also  shown  choice  specimens  of  cartogra- 
phy, and  some  exceedingly  rare  autographic  docu- 
ments written  by  famous  Americans. 

The  Providence  Public  Library  made  two  distinct 
exhibits  in  connection  with  the  anniversary,  one  during 
the  previous  winter  and  the  other  during  the  autumn. 
In  the  earlier  exhibit  the  aim  was  to  include  some  pub- 
lications typifying  the  administration  of  each  one  of  the 
nine  University  presidents;  in  the  later,  to  mark  in  a 
similar  manner  each  of  the  six  colleges  existing  in  the 
American  colonies  when  Brown  University  opened  its 
doors  in  1 764  as  Rhode  Island  College.  The  earlier  ex- 
hibit also  contained  miscellaneous  objects  of  interest, 
such  as  a  copy  of  the  "Providence  Gazette"  of  May 
24, 1777,  announcing  the  temporary  suspension  of  col- 
lege work. 

The  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design  oflfered  a  special 
loan  exhibition  of  early  American  art.  This  was  made 
up  of  a  very  unusual  group  of  portraits  including  minia- 
tures, old  silver,  pewter,  embroideries,  samplers,  wall- 
papers, and  the  like.  The  Colonial  House,  built  to  hold 
and  display  the  Pendleton  Collection  of  old  furniture 
and  china,  was  also  opened  to  visitors. 

The  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  gave  a  notable 

C   8   ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

exhibition,  consisting  of  over  one  liundred  ancient  and 
modern  views  of  Brown  University  There  were  shown 
the  venerable  Meeting  Street  Schoolhouse,  built  in 
1770  and  still  standing,  which  was  the  earliest  home 
of  the  University  in  Providence;  the  ancient  University 
Grammar  School,  on  the  corner  of  College  and  Pros- 
pect streets;  views  of  the  earlier  and  later  University 
buildings,  of  the  Front  Campus  and  the  Middle  Cam- 
pus; and  the  various  playing-fields  of  the  University. 
Different  stages  of  the  beginnings  and  growth  of  **  The 
Women's  College  in  Brown  University"  were  also  de- 
picted. 

The  Annmary  Brown  Memorial  was  also  open 
throughout  anniversary  week,  through  the  courtesy  of 
the  founder, General  Rush  Christopher  Hawkins.  Many 
of  the  alumni  visited  for  the  first  time  this  important 
addition  to  the  artistic  and  educational  resources  of 
Providence.  At  the  Memorial,  erected  by  the  founder 
to  perpetuate  the  name  of  his  wife,  a  granddaughter  of 
the  Nicholas  Brown  whose  name  the  University  bears, 
were  to  be  seen  a  hundred  superb  paintings,  about 
equally  divided  between  the  older  masters  and  mod- 
ern artists.  There  were  also  exhibited  nearly  five  hun- 
dred opened  volumes  from  the  "first  presses"  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  exemplifying,  as  nowhere  else  in  the 
world,  at  a  single  view,  the  history  of  the  first  half- 
century  of  printing.  Touching  more  nearly  the  sympa- 
thetic interest  of  many  visitors  were  personal  souve- 
nirs, gathered  by  the  donor  while  commanding  "Haw- 
kins'  Zouaves  "  during  the  Civil  War,  and  during  the 
years  of  his  acquaintanceship  with  the  leaders  of  Amer- 
ican public  life. 

The  University  Departments  of  Biblical  Literature 

c  9 : 


Brown  University 

and  History,  Chemistry,  Civil  Engineering,  Germanic 
Languages  and  Literatures,  Mechanical  Engineering, 
and  Social  and  Political  Science  made  effective  exhibits 
of  their  work  and  resources  during  the  anniversary 
week.  The  Seminary  of  the  Department  of  Mathemat- 
ics was  also  open  during  the  same  period. 

The  various  committees,  made  up  from  the  Faculty, 
the  alumni,  and  citizens  of  Providence,  which  were 
formed  by  the  Celebration  Committee  to  share  in  the 
task  of  shaping  the  festival  programme,  and  which  sub- 
sequently carried  it  to  a  successful  conclusion,  were  as 
follows : 

Finance  Committee:  Henry  D.  Sharpe, '94,  Chair- 
man; Edward  O.Stanley,'76,  Stephen  O.Edwards, '79, 
Frank  W.  Matteson,  '92,  G.  Edward  Buxton,  Jr.,  '02. 

Academic  Celebration  Committee:  Professor  William 
MacDonald,  Chairman;  Henry  M.  King,  Professor 
Henry  B.  Gardner,  '84,  Professor  Walter  G.  Everett, 
'85,  Albert  D.  Mead,  Professor  Albert  Knight  Potter, 
'86,  Dr.  G.  Alder  Blumer. 

Dramatic  and  Musical  Committee:  Edwin  A.  Burlin- 
game, Chairman ;  Professor  George  W.  Benedict, Rath- 
bone  Gardner, '77,  Jesse  H.  Metcalf,  Frank  L.  Hinckley, 
'91,  Henry  A.  Barker,  'qs-,  H.  Nelson  Campbell,  Eliot 
G.  Parkhurst,  '06,  Professor  Thomas  Crosby,  Jr.,  '94, 
Walter  H.  Kimball,  '94,  Professor  Frederick  W.  Mar- 
vel, '94,  Henry  B.  Rose,  '81 ,  Herbert  L.  Dorrance,  '07, 
Claude  R.  Branch,  '07,  Livingston  Ham,  '94,  Edward 
B.  Birge,  '91 ,  John  H.  Cady,  '03,  Sidney  R.  Burleigh. 

Alumni  Participation  Committee:  Archibald  C.  Mat- 
teson, '9S,  Chairman;  William  C.  Greene,  '75,  Dr. 
Frank  L.  Day,  '85,  John  A.  Tillinghast,  '95,  J.  Palmer 
Barstow,  '02,  Robert  B.  Jones,  '07. 

[  1°  ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

Undergraduate  Participation  Committee:  Professor 
Edmund  B.  Delabarre,  Chairman;  Professor  Albert 
D.  Mead,  Claude  R.  Branch,  '07.  This  committee  of 
graduates  called  to  its  aid  the  following  Committee 
of  Undergraduates:  Seniors:  William  P.  Sheffield,  Jr., 
Chairman;  Carl  A.  Terry,  Treasurer;  Frederick  H. 
Greene,  Secretary;  William  E.  Beehan,  George  F. 
Bliven,  William  R.  Burwell,  Ralph  W.  Cram,  Edward 
W.  Hincks,  Seth  K.  Mitchell.  Juniors:  William  R.LeR. 
McBee,W^illiam  N.  Ormsby,  Frank  E.  Starrett,  Amasa 
F.  Williston.  Sophomore:  Walter  K.  Sprague.  Special: 
William  M.  Tilton. 

The  committees'  plan  of  a  complete  celebration  in- 
cluded University,  city,  and  Commonwealth.  In  this 
view  the  anniversary  programme,  as  finally  elabo- 
rated comprised  a  series  of  academic,  athletic,  and  so- 
cial functions,  involving  both  the  academic  world  and 
the  Rhode  Island  community.  The  formal  academic 
programme  was  arranged  to  include  a  University  Ser- 
mon by  the  President  of  the  University,  on  Sunday, 
October  1 1 ;  addresses  on  the  Religious  History  of  the 
University,  on  Monday,  October  1 2 ;  an  address  on  the 
Early  History  of  the  University,  on  Tuesday,  October 
13,  at  Warren,  Rhode  Island;  an  Historical  Address 
on  Wednesday,  October  14,  in  Providence,  followed  by 
the  presentation  of  delegates  from  learned  institutions; 
a  University  Address,  on  Thursday,  October  15,  at- 
tended by  the  conferring  of  honorary  degrees ;  and  on 
Thursday  evening  a  University  Dinner  with  addresses 
by  distinguished  guests. 

The  social  programme  included  several  perform- 
ances of  a  celebration  play ;  a  concert  by  the  Men- 
delssohn Club,  of  New  York ;  receptions  by  the  Uni- 


Brown  University 

versity,  the  Women's  College,  and  the  Rhode  Island 
School  of  Design  to  the  visiting  delegates  and  invited 
guests;  and  a  series  of  organ  recitals.  Arrangements 
were  also  made  for  the  active  participation  of  the  alumni 
in  Class  Reunion  Luncheons  and  in  a  Glee  Clubs'  Re- 
union Concert ;  and  of  the  students  in  a  special  Chapel 
Service,  with  addresses  by  eminent  visitors,  and  in  Ath- 
letic Events  on  Andrews  Field  to  illustrate  the  devel- 
opment of  physical  training  in  school  and  college.  In 
these  athletic  events  children  from  the  city  grammar 
schools  and  pupils  from  the  college  preparatory  schools 
of  the  city  and  vicinity  were  also  to  take  part.  A  Torch- 
light Procession  of  graduates  and  undergraduates  in 
costume,  escorted  by  the  citizen  soldiery  of  the  state, 
was  to  furnish  the  spectacular  and  popular  feature  of 
the  anniversary,  and  emphasize  the  harmonious  rela- 
tions of  "town  and  gown." 

Besides  the  festival  programme  thus  arranged,  the 
Committee  on  the  Academic  Celebration  issued  invita- 
tions to  a  number  of  distinguished  American  and  Euro- 
pean scholars  to  give  in  Providence,  during  the  autumn 
and  winter  of  1914-15,  courses  of  lectures  in  contin- 
uance of  the  anniversary  celebration.  The  critical  ad- 
dresses on  literary  and  scientific  subjects  delivered 
during  that  period  in  response  to  these  invitations 
brought  to  a  fitting  close  the  academic  programme  for 
the  celebration.  An  account  setting  forth  the  names  of 
the  speakers  and  their  subjects,  together  with  their 
reception  in  Providence,  appears  at  the  end  of  this 
book. 

Under  date  of  March  1,191 4,  formal  invitations  were 
issued  by  the  President  and  Corporation  to  various 
institutions  of  learning  in  foreign  countries  and  in  the 

[  12  ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

United  States,  requesting  the  honor  of  the  presence  of 
a  delegate  from  the  Faculty  or  Governing  Board  of 
each  such  institution  "at  exercises  in  Celebration  of  the 
One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Founding 
of  the  University,  to  be  held  at  Providence  in  the  week 
beginning  Sunday,  the  eleventh  day  of  October,  nine- 
teen hundred  and  fourteen."  The  list  of  the  delegates 
will  appear  in  connection  with  the  account  of  the  Pre- 
sentation of  Delegates.  Similar  invitations  were  at  the 
same  time  sent  to  distinguished  individuals  both  within 
and  without  Rhode  Island.  Among  the  invited  guests  of 
the  University,  other  than  delegates  from  institutions, 
outside  Rhode  Island  were: 

Miss  Matty  Lucina  Beattie,  Boston  Alumnae  Asso- 
ciation ;  Professor  Charles  Edwin  Bennett, Cornell  Uni- 
versity;  Rev.  Howard  Allen  Bridgm an, Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts; Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  Burgess,  Bishop  of  Long 
Island;  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  New  York;  Mr.  James 
McKeen  Cattell,  Society  of  the  Sigma  Xi,  Newport ; 
Mr.  Clarkson  Abel  Collins,  New  York  City  Alumni  As- 
sociation; Mr.  and  Mrs.  Costello  C.  Converse,  Mai- 
den, Massachusetts;  Mr.  Charles  Allerton  Coolidge, 
Boston,  Massachusetts;  Mr.  Elmer  Lawrence  Corthell, 
North  Egremont,  Massachusetts ;  Professor  Nathaniel 
French  Davis,  American  Mathematical  Society;  Mr. 
Samuel  Coffin  Eastman,  Concord,  New  Hampshire; 
Austin  B.  Fletcher,  Esq.,  New  York;  Professor  Edwin 
Augustus  Grosvenor,  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society;  Miss 
Caroline  Hazard ,  Santa  Barbara ,  California ;  Mr.  George 
Henderson,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania;  Mr. William 
Colver  Hill,  Connecticut  Valley  Alumni  Association; 
Hon.  Charles  Evans  Hughes,  Washington;  Mr.  Rob- 
ert Underwood  Johnson,  New  York ;  Dr.  William  Wil- 

[    13  ] 


Brown  University 

liams  Keen,  American  Philosophical  Society ;  Professor 
Charles  Foster  Kent,  Yale  University ;  Professor  Wil- 
liam Kirk,  University  of  Rochester;  Mr.  William  Cool- 
idge  Lane,  Harvard  University  Library;  Rev.  Curtis 
Lee  Laws,  New  York;  Mr.  Waldo  Lincoln,  Ameri- 
can Antiquarian  Society ;  Arthur  Lord,  Esq.,  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts;  Professor  Hamilton  Crawford  Mac- 
DougalljWellesley  College;  Professor  John  Matthews 
Manly,  University  of  Chicago;  Mr.  Man  ton  Bradley 
Metcalf,  Orange,  New  Jersey;  Mr.  Romulo  S.  Naon, 
Ambassador  for  Argentina ;  Dr.  Charles  Lemuel  Nich- 
ols, Worcester,  Massachusetts;  Mr.  Henry  Robinson 
Palmer,  Washington  and  New  London  Counties  Alumni 
Association ;  Mr.  Frederic  Alfonso  Pezet,  Minister  for 
Peru ;  Professor  James  Pierpont,  American  Mathemat- 
ical Society;  Dr.  Henry  Smith  Pritchett,  Carnegie  Foun- 
dation for  the  Advancement  of  Teaching;  Mr.  Herbert 
Putnam,  The  Library  of  Congress;  Mrs.  Freeman  Put- 
ney, Jr.,  New  York  Alumnae  Association;  Rev.  Au- 
gustus Phineas  Reccord,  Springfield,  Massachusetts; 
Mr.  Chester  A.  Reeds,  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History;  Mr.  James  Ford  Rhodes,  Boston,  Massachu- 
setts; Mr.  John  Davison  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  New  York; 
Very  Rev.  Edmund  Swett  Rousmaniere,  Boston,  Mas- 
sachusetts; Mr.  Franklin  Benjamin  Sanborn,  Concord, 
Massachusetts;  Professor  Paul  Shorey,  University  of 
Chicago;  Professor  Frederick  Slocum,  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity; Mr.  Robert  Cooper  Smith,  K.C.,  Montreal, 
Canada;  Mr.  Edward  Otis  Stanley,  East  Orange,  New 
Jersey;  Hon.  William  Howard  Taft,  Yale  University; 
Rev.  James  Monroe  Taylor,  Rochester,  New  York ; 
Mr.  Daniel  Berkeley  Updike,  Boston,  Massachusetts; 
Miss  Ahce  Wilson  Wilcox,  The  Fairbanks  Museum  of 

C    14   ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

Natural  Science;  Professor  George  Grafton  Wilson, 
Harvard  University. 

On  March  25,1914,  the  following  invitation  was  sent 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  Rhode  Island: 

To  his  Excellency,  the  Governor,  and  the  Honorable,  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island : 

GENTLEMEN :  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  passed 
since  the  charter  of  Brown  University  was  granted  by 
the  ' '  General  Assembly  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  the 
English  Colony  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Plantations," 
then  in  session  in  the  town  of  East  Greenwich.  The  exact  date 
of  that  memorable  action  by  your  honorable  bodies  was  March 
the  third,  1764,  and  the  University  is  preparing  to  celebrate 
its  sesquicentennial  in  the  week  beginning  October  the  elev- 
enth, 1914. 

Vast  chunges  have  come  about  in  these  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years.  The  little  English  Colony  has  become  a  sovereign 
state,  united  with  forty-seven  other  states  in  an  enduring  Re- 
public. Struggling  settlements  on  the  edge  of  the  New  Eng- 
land wilderness  have  become  populous  cities.  Great  industries 
have  here  arisen,  applying  modern  science  to  the  satisfaction 
of  human  needs.  Libraries,  museums,  schools  and  churches 
have  multiplied.  Wealth  has  come  to  many  citizens,  know- 
ledge and  freedom  have  come  to  all.  During  all  these  years  the 
University  has  enjoyed  the  rights  and  liberties  granted  in  the 
ancient  charter,  and  has  found  in  Rhode  Island  that  perfect 
civil  and  religious  freedom  in  which  alone  a  University  can 
flourish.  The  State  of  Rhode  Island  has  been  true  to  its  offer 
of  protection  to  the  higher  education ;  we  venture  to  hope  that 
the  University  has  not  failed  in  its  duty  of  "preserving  in  the 
community  a  succession  of  men  duly  qualified  for  discharging 
the  offices  of  life  with  usefulness  and  reputation."  We  wish  to 
thank  the  people  of  this  commonwealth,  as  represented  in  your 
honorable  bodies,  for  innumerable  gifts,  not  onlv  of  material 
things,  but  of  sympathv,  confidence  and  good-will. 

[  15  ] 


Brown  University 

As  we  approach  our  anniversary  we  wish  to  renew  our 
allegiance  to  the  laws  and  institutions  of  Rhode  Island,  and 
Ave  seek  still  more  earnestly  to  train  our  students  for  intelligent 
citizenship  and  public  service. 

We  beg  to  invite  your  Excellency  and  your  honorable  bodies 
to  participate  in  our  celebration  by  your  personal  presence  at 
our  festivities  in  the  month  of  October. 

With  respect  we  beg  to  remain,  sincerely  yours, 

W.  H.  P.  Faunce,  President 
Arnold  Buffum  Chace,  Chancellor 
Henry  Dexter  Sharpe,  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Celebration 

The  General  Assembly  passed  the  following  joint  re- 
solve in  formal  reply  to  this  invitation : 

State  of  Rhode  Island  and  PROvmENCE  Plantations  in  Gen- 
eral Assembly  January  Session,  a.d.  1914.  Joint  Resolution 
accepting  invitation  of  Brown  University  to  participate  in  its 
Sesquicentennial  in  October,  1914.  Approved  April  16, 1914. 

Resolved^  That  the  invitation  of  Brown  University,  through 
its  President,  Chancellor,  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Celebration  of  its  Sesquicentennial,  to  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  to  participate 
in  said  Celebration,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  accepted. 

Resolved^  That  this  General  Assembly  offers  to  the  Univer- 
sity its  hearty  congratulations  upon  the  honorable  record  made 
during  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  since  the  charter  was 
granted  and  improves  this  occasion  to  testify  that  the  Univer- 
sity has  not  failed  in  the  duty  of  ' '  preserving  in  the  community 
a  succession  of  men  duly  qualified  for  discharging  the  offices 
of  life  with  usefulness  and  reputation." 

Resolved^  That  the  General  Assembly  is  proud  of  the  high 
rank  which  the  University  holds  among  the  educational  insti- 
tutions of  our  nation  and  of  the  distinction  brought  to  this  state 
by  the  lives  and  works  of  its  many  able  and  eminent  gradu- 
ates, professors  and  officers,  past  and  present,  and  appreci- 
ates thoroughly  the  great  service  rendered  to  this  state  not  only 

C    16] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

by  these  but  also  by  that  far  greater  number,  ^^•ho,  \\hile  less 
eminent,  have  been  trained  by  the  University  to  lives  of  use- 
fulness and  service  which  have  helped  to  give  Rhode  Island 
the  enviable  position  which  she  occupies  among  the  states  of 
our  nation. 

Resolved^  That  the  Assembly  extends  to  the  University  its 
best  wishes  for  a  future  even  more  glorious  and  useful  than 
the  past. 

That  the  Secretary  of  State  is  hereby  directed  to  send  to  the 
President  of  Brown  University  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  suit- 
ably engrossed  and  signed  by  his  Excellency  the  Governor,  his 
Honor  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  the  Honorable  Speaker  of 
the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  following  committees  were  subsequently  appointed  by 
His  Honor  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  Roswell  B.  Burchard, 
and  the  Honorable  Frank  F.  Davis,  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  to  represent  the  General  Assembly  at  the  ex- 
ercises of  the  celebration : 

Senate:  Philip  H.  Wilbour,  Ezra  Dixon,  Edward  E.  Ar- 
nold, R.  Livingston  Beeckman,  Addison  P.  Munroe. 

House  of  Representatives:  Frank  H.  Hammill,  Arthur  P. 
Sumner,  Lewis  A.  Briggs,  David  J.  White,  Albert  B.  West, 
John  B.  Sullivan,  Albert  E.  Morrill. 

Providence  was  en  Jete  during  the  week  of  the  Uni- 
versity festivities.  The  city,  to  which  the  block  and  the 
apartment  hotel  are  comparative  strangers,  is  still 
largely  a  place  of  detached  homes  surrounded  each 
by  its  own  lawn  and  shrubbery.  Chancellor  William 
Goddard  used  to  quote  James  Russell  Lowell  as  saying 
that  he  was  always  glad  to  come  to  Providence,  because 
each  house  had  at  least  "forty  feet  of  respectability 
about  it."  These  homes  opened  their  welcoming  arms 
to  the  learned  strangers  within  their  gates.  The  First 
Baptist  Meeting-House,  built  in  1 775  with  the  proceeds 
of  a  lottery,  "for  the  publick  Worship  of  Almighty 


Brown  University- 
God;  and  also  for  holding  Commencement  in/'  re- 
splendent in  a  fresh  coat  of  white  paint  and  newly 
garnished  within,  stood  ready  on  the  hillside  for  the 
approaching  festivities.  Flags  flew  over  the  roofs  of  the 
hospitable  city  during  the  celebration,  and  everywhere 
Brown  ribbons  were  in  evidence.  College  Street,  freed 
at  last  from  its  grinding  car-tracks,  was  festooned  with 
chains  of  laurel  from  Benefit  Street  to  the  Van  Wickle 
Gates, along  either  side  and  at  intervals  across  the  road- 
way, while  the  erstwhile  trolley  poles  and  electric  light 
posts  were  similarly  enchained  with  wreaths  and  spi- 
rals. At  the  John  Hay  Library  the  terrace  railing  was 
looped  with  laurel  and  garlanded  with  pots  of  greenery 
picked  out  with  bright-hued  berries.  The  Van  Wickle 
Gates  guarding  the  main  entrance  were  decorated  with 
wreaths  and  festooned  with  leafy  chains  interspersed 
with  electric  lights  for  evening  display.  The  fence  and 
the  remaining  gates  were  in  turn  hung  with  laurel  fes- 
toons from  post  to  post,  each  post  itself  bearing  pots  of 
greenery  splashed  with  color,  while  the  campus  was 
hung  with  many-hued  Japanese  lanterns  for  occasional 
illumination. 

The  various  clubs  in  and  around  Providence  hospit- 
ably extended  their  facilities  to  visitors  and  friends  of 
members.  The  courtesies  of  the  University  Club,  the 
Hope  Club,  the  Providence  Art  Club,  the  Turk's  Head 
Club,  the  Rhode  Island  Country  Club,  the  Agawam 
Hunt  Club,  the  Wannamoisett  Country  Club,  and  the 
Metacomet  Golf  Club  were  offered  to  the  guests  of 
the  University  for  the  period  of  the  Celebration.  The 
Brown  Union  in  Rockefeller  Hall  also  was  open  to 
guests  of  the  University  during  the  same  period. 

Anniversary  week  was  appropriately  anticipated  by 

[    18   ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

the  Warren  Pageant.  The  citizens  of  that  historic  town, 
originally  a  part  of  Welsh-settled  Swansea  in  Massa- 
chusetts, in  addition  to  academic  exercises,  prepared  a 
sylvan  pageant  to  mark  at  once  the  founding  of  the 
town  in  1 746,  the  formation  of  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
and  the  location  there  of  the  college  in  1764.  The 
pageant  w^as  staged  at  *'  Maxwelton,"  the  charming  es- 
tate of  Mr.  James  Maxwell  Wheaton,  bordering  on*' the 
Sowams  River  of  the  Pilgrims"  and  looking  out  upon 
Narragansett  Bay.  The  leading  people  of  Warren  and 
vicinity  and  of  the  parent  town  of  Swansea,  men  and 
matrons,  young  men  and  maidens,  including  the  Prin- 
cess Wootonekanuske,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Massa- 
soit,  with  school  children, — nine  hundred  in  all, — sym- 
bolized on  this  rural  stage,  under  the  skilled  direction 
of  Miss  Margaret  MacLaren  Eager,  the  experiences, 
the  hardships,  and  the  successes  of  the  town's  first  set- 
tlers and  their  worthy  descendants.  The  first  represen- 
tation of  this  interesting  attempt  to  visualize  the  town's 
past  history  was  given  on  Friday  afternoon,  ninth  Oc- 
tober. Repetitions  followed  on  the  afternoons  of  Sat- 
urday and  Monday,  tenth  and  twelfth  October.  They 
were  witnessed  by  throngs  of  delighted  spectators  from 
within  and  without  the  town,  including  many  comers 
to  Brown  for  the  forthcoming  commemoration.  Serene 
and  cloudless  October  skies  smiled  upon  the  succes- 
sive performances,  emphasized  each  day  by  the  open- 
ing prelude  symbolically  featuring  a  misty  morning 
on  Narragansett  Bay,  upon  which  the  "  Spirits  of  the 
Mists"  were  scattered  by  the  rising  of  the  "South 
Wind."  The  pageantry  thus  introduced  proceeded  to 
picture  a  succession  of  historical  episodes  in  the  life  of 
the  town,  interspersed  with  legendary  interludes,  and 

[  19  ] 


Brown  University 

closing  with  a  finale,  a  prophecy  in  symbol  of  "The 
Warren  of  To-morrow."  In  the  earlier  episodes,  laid 
at  "  Sowams  in  Pokanoket,"  were  depicted  the  friendli- 
ness of  Massasoit  and  the  Wampanoags  toward  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers  and  Roger  Williams  seeking  shelter,  the 
death  of  Massasoit,  and  the  destruction  of  "Sowams" 
by  the  Indians.  The  settling  of  the  Welsh  in  Swansea, 
the  setting-off  of  the  township  of  Warren,  the  loca- 
tion in  the  town  of  the  newly  chartered  institution, 
with  a  sketch  of  "the  first  Commencement  Exercises" 
were  the  themes  treated  in  a  second  group  of  episodes. 
The  plight  of  Warren  during  the  American  Revolution 
was  the  subject  of  a  succeeding  group,  showing  "the 
forming  of  the  trainband" — "The  alarm  men" — "The 
artillery,"  and  the  havoc  in  the  town  created  by  the 
king's  troops,  and  depicting  "Lafayette's  headquar- 
ters in  Warren  in  1 778  "  and  "  General  Washington  at 
Burr's  Tavern."  The  glories  of  "maritime  Warren," 
when  the  town  was  second  only  to  Salem  in  sea-borne 
commerce,  were  emphasized  in  later  scenes,  showing 
"  The  launching  of  the  General  Greene,"  "The  return 
of  a  merchantman,""  The  Warren  Fire  Department  in 
1802,"  with  the  ancient  hand-tub  "  Hero,"  and  "An  ar- 
tillery ball  in  the'50's,"  in  which  descendants  in  the  rare 
old  costumes  of  ancestors  stepped  the  reels  and  contra- 
dances  of  an  earlier  day.  "Industrial  Warren"  of  the 
present  day  merging  into  the  finale, "The  Warren  of 
To-morrow,"  symbolically  indicated  by  the  various  in- 
dustries and  nationalities  settled  in  this  town,  brought 
the  spectacle  to  a  close. 

The  town  of  Warren  devoted  four  days  in  all  to  cele- 
brating its  important  share  in  the  establishment  of  the 
college,  for  the  permanent  possession  of  which  ambi- 

C  20  ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

tious  rivals  fought  and  which  one  of  them  succeeded 
in  obtaining.  The  pageantry  of  the  first  three  days  in- 
volved the  interested  participation  of  a  large  section  of 
the  townspeople  and  gave  delight  equally  to  the  parti- 
cipants and  to  their  audiences.  The  formal  exercises  of 
Tuesday,  thirteenth  October,  emphasized  through  the 
address  by  Dr.  William  W.  Keen,  of  Philadelphia,  on 
"  The  Early  Years  of  Brown  University  ( 1 764-1 770 ) ," 
the  intimate  connection  between  the  University  and  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  the  building  of  w^hich  made  it 
possible  to  locate  the  infant  college  in  the  town,  and 
place  both  church  and  college  under  the  wise  leadership 
of  James  Manning. 

Commemoration  week  was  formally  ushered  in  at 
Providence  on  Sunday  and  Monday,  eleventh  and 
twelfth  October,  with  religious  observances.  On  Sunday 
afternoon  divine  service  was  held  in  the  First  Baptist 
Meeting-House  on  North  Main  Street  with  a  sermon 
by  President  Faunce  upon  the  religious  foundation  of 
the  University  and  its  devotion  to  the  public  service. 
The  singing  by  the  chorus  from  the  Arion  Club,  under 
the  lead  of  Dr.  Jules  Jordan,  formed  an  impressive  addi- 
tion to  the  service.  The  audience,  made  up  of  graduates, 
delegates,  invited  guests,  and  townspeople,  filled  every 
seat  in  the  historic  edifice.  The  arrangements  for  usher- 
ing, as  for  all  the  academic  functions  of  the  week,  were 
in  charge  of  Professor  John  B.  Dunning,  who  was  as- 
sisted by  students,  graduates,  and  members  of  the  Fac- 
ulty. During  the  day  other  special  addresses  relating  to 
the  University  were  delivered  in  various  churches  in 
the  city. 

Theacademic  programmefor Monday, in  both  morn- 
ing and  afternoon,  was  made  up  of  addresses  on  Reli- 

i  21  ] 


Brown  University 

gious  Education  by  representatives  of  the  four  denomi- 
nations which  cooperated  in  the  founding  of  the  Uni- 
versity. At  the  morning  session  the  Rev.  Clarence  A. 
Barbour  presided,  and  addresses  were  made  by  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Frederick  Burgess,  on  "The  University  and  the 
Christian  Ministry,"  and  by  the  Rev.  George  E.  Horr, 
on  ''The  University  and  Christian  Missions."  At  the 
afternoon  session  the  Rev.  Thomas  D.  Anderson  pre- 
sided, and  there  were  addresses  by  President  Edgar  Y. 
Mullins,  on  the  "Baptists  and  Education,"  by  President 
Isaac  Sharpless,  on  "Quaker  Ideals  in  Education,"  by 
President  John  M.  Thomas,  on  "The  Puritan  Basis  of 
Education,"  and  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  James  DeW.  Perry, on 
"Religious  Education  in  the  Modern  College."  Deeply 
interested  audiences  were  present  in  Sayles  Memorial 
Hall  and  listened  to  illuminating  discussions  of  the  rela- 
tion of  church  and  college,  or  to  sketches  of  great  reli- 
gious leaders  whose  portraits,  many  of  them,  looked 
down  from  the  walls  upon  the  assembly.  In  an  age 
when  the  university  is  sometimes  supposed  to  be  swing- 
ing away  from  the  church  it  was  fitting  that  Brown  Uni- 
versity should  thus  publicly  avow  its  historic  debt  to  the 
Christian  communions  that  gave  it  birth. 

On  Monday  noon  a  series  of  recitals  on  the  college 
organ  in  Sayles  Memorial  Hall  was  begun  by  Gene 
Wilder  Ware,  '06,  Organist  and  Director  of  Chapel 
Music,  whose  discriminating  programmes,  performed 
each  noon  during  the  festival,  added  greatly  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  many  who  attended  them. 

The  opening  performance  of  the  Celebration  Play, 
which  took  place  on  Monday  evening  at  the  Providence 
Opera  House,  was  the  first  of  a  series  of  social  func- 
tions for  the  entertainment  of  the  members  of  the  Uni- 

C    S2    2 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

versity,  their  friends  and  visitors.  The  audience  on  the 
first  night  was  made  up  chiefly  of  members  of  the  Cor- 
poration and  Faculty,  and  of  guests  of  the  University  in 
Providence  and  vicinity.  Two  more  representations  later 
in  the  week  were  provided  for  the  benefit  of  the  alumni, 
and  of  delegates  and  invited  guests  from  a  distance  with 
their  hosts  and  hostesses.  The  special  committee  in 
charge  consisted  of  Edwin  A.  Burlingame,  Chairman; 
Rathbone  Gardner,  Henry  A.  Barker,  and  Professor 
Thomas  Crosby, Jr.This  dramatic  production  was  made 
possible  by  the  cooperation  of  the  amateur  actors  in  the 
city  and  University.  This  *'  play  within  a  play  in  a  theatre 
within  a  theatre,''  reflecting  the  mid-eighteenth  cen- 
tury feeling  for  and  against  the  theatre,  with  casts  made 
up  largely  to  represent  historical  personages,  formed 
an  effective  part  of  the  festival  programme. 

Tuesday  might  well  have  been  called  Alumni  Day. 
So  many  of  the  alumni  and  alumnae  had  by  that  date 
arrived  in  Providence  to  "  live  their  bright  college  days 
over  again"  that  the  day  was  largely  devoted  on  its 
social  side  to  class  reunions.  The  University  Club  was 
naturally  the  scene  of  many  of  these,  but  the  hotels, 
other  clubs,  and  residences  of  classmates  shared  in  the 
festivities.  They  were  entirely  informal,  and  consisted 
mostly  of  song  and  reminiscence.  One  class  gave  a  lov- 
ing cup  to  that  member  who  had  traveled  "  the  further- 
est  to  get  to  the  reunion,"  and  a  piece  of  silver  to  the 
one  first  sending  a  son  to  Brown.  Many  of  the  alumni 
marched  in  the  torchlight  parade.  The  graduates  of  the 
Women's  College  joined  during  the  evening  in  their 
sixth  Brown  Alumnae  Dinner  in  the  Sayles  Gymna- 
sium. The  undergraduates  participated  in  the  festivi- 
ties at  tables  set "  in  the  running  track"  in  the  balcony. 

C    23    ] 


Brown  University 

Miss  Sarah  Elizabeth  Doyle  and  Miss  Mary  Colman 
Wheeler  were  guests  of  honor.  At  the  dinner,  Miss 
Sarah  Gridley  Ross,  '05,  President  of  the  Alumnae,  in- 
troduced Miss  Emily  Gardner  Munro,  '98,  as  toast- 
mistress.  The  Annie  Crosby  Emery  Fellowship  Fund 
of  three  thousand  dollars,  it  was  announced,  was  two- 
thirds  raised.  Dean  Lida  Shaw  King  welcomed  to  the 
dinner  the  guests  and  the  alumnae.  President  Mary 
Emma  Woolley,  '94,  of  Mount  Holyoke  College,  em- 
phasized "our  debt  to  Brown."  President  M.  Carey 
Thomas,  of  Bryn  Mawr  College,  spoke  of  the  pleasant 
relations  existing  between  the  two  colleges, saying  that 
"  Brown  girls  appeared  to  have  a  first  mortgage  upon 
the  Bryn  Mawr  European  Scholarships."  Miss  Almira 
Bashford  Coffin,  of  the  Senior  class,  spoke  for  the  stu- 
dents. Professor  Otis  Everett  Randall, '84,  Dean  of  the 
University,  spoke  of  the  loyalty  of  the  graduates  of  the 
Women's  College,  and  of  the  support  the  latter  had 
received  from  the  University. 

At  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Tuesday  a  Glee 
Clubs'  Reunion  Concert  was  given  on  the  terrace  of 
Rockefeller  Hall  overlooking  the  middle  campus.  Ben- 
jamin Stanley  Webb, '92,  was  the  leader  of  the  chorus, 
and  Roy  Cleveland  PhiUips,'i5,  was  the  accompanist. 
John  Young,  '95,  was  the  tenor  soloist.  The  chorus  was 
made  up  of  graduates  from  1868  to  191 2, and  of  under- 
graduates. Old  and  new  college  songs  were  sung,  the 
concert  ending  with  "  Alma  Mater." 

In  the  torchlight  procession  of  Tuesday  evening 
Brown  came  fully  up  to  its  reputation  as  "the  parading- 
est"  of  colleges.  The  illuminated  campus  was  thronged 
early  and  late  with  paraders  and  onlookers.  The  side- 
walks of  the  city  along  the  route  of  march  were  lined 

[  24  ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

with  delighted  spectators.  The  procession  was  most 
effective  in  its  contrasts,  the  untorched  military  escort 
being  an  excellent  foil  to  the  college  division  with  its 
flaring  torches,  blazing  transparencies,  roman  candles, 
and  flaming  sticks  of  red  fire.  Within  the  military  divi- 
sion the  khaki  of  the  Coast  Artillery  contrasted  with 
the  plain  blue  of  the  other  national  guardsmen,  while 
against  both  stood  out  the  showier  uniforms  of  the 
chartered  companies.  The  undergraduate  division  in 
its  mixture  of  aborigines,  early  settlers,  and  native  and 
foreign  soldiers  and  sailors,  presented  in  symbol  a 
kaleidoscopic  picture  of  the  early  years  of  colony, 
state, and  University.  The  very  effective  costumes  worn 
by  the  students,  and  elsewhere  fully  described,  were 
designed  by  William  Martin  Tilton,  a  graduate  of  the 
Rhode  Island  School  of  Design,  and  a  member  of  the 
Undergraduates'  Celebration  Committee.  The  march- 
ing of  the  procession  down  College  Street  to  Benefit 
Street  was  a  sight  long  to  be  remembered.  The  under- 
graduate body  varied  the  return  route  of  march  by 
passing  through  the  street-car  tunnel,  from  which, 
smooched  with  soot,  blinded  by  smoke,  and  choked 
with  reek,  the  students  emerged  not  so  handsome,  not 
less  lively,  but  certainly  wiser  young  men. 

The  academic  procession  of  Wednesday,  fourteenth 
October,  grouped  together  for  the  first  time  the  schol- 
ars from  learned  institutions  at  home  and  abroad  and 
the  other  eminent  visitors  gathered  to  do  honor  to 
Brown  University.  The  procession,  as  with  mortar- 
board, variegated  hood,  and  solemn  gown  it  wended  its 
sinuous  way  to  the  ancient  Meeting-House  from  the 
college  on  the  hill,  under  the  cloudless  sky  of  a  golden 
October  day,  presented  an  appearance  at  once  digni- 

C    25    ] 


Brown  University 

fied,  effective,  and  long  to  be  remembered  by  the  for- 
tunate spectator.  The  Historical  Address  by  Mr.  Jus- 
tice Hughes, '81 ,  laid  special  emphasis  upon  the  gift  by 
the  college  to  the  community  and  to  the  country  of  so 
long  a  Hne  of  trained,  forceful,  and  cultivated  citizens. 
The  Presentation  of  Delegates  to  the  President  and 
Chancellor  was  a  dignified  function,  and  gave  oppor- 
tunity for  the  delivery  of  numerous  congratulatory  ad- 
dresses. A  University  Luncheon  at  noon  at  the  Lyman 
Gymnasium  and  Rockefeller  Hall  and  a  University 
Reception  in  Sayles  Memorial  Hall  at  the  end  of  the 
afternoon  brought  together  at  each  function  a  brilliant 
company  of  delegates,  invited  guests,  members  of  the 
University,  and  alumni. 

The  concert  by  the  Mendelssohn  Club,  of  New  York, 
on  Wednesday  evening,  at  Infantry  Hall,  was  a  gra- 
cious and  charming  compliment  alike  to  the  University 
and  to  the  city  of  Providence.  Only  three  times  before 
in  its  long  and  notable  history  had  this  famous  choir  of 
men's  voices  given  concerts  away  from  home:  twice  in 
Boston,  at  the  inception  of  the  Apollo  Club  and  later  to 
assist  that  club  in  celebrating  its  twenty-fifth  anniver- 
sary;  and  once  in  Philadelphia  to  sing  with  the  Apollo 
Club  there.  The  concert  was  notable  as  an  artistic  and 
musical  success,  giving  unalloyed  pleasure  to  the  large 
and  enthusiastic  audience  of  members  of  the  Univer- 
sity and  their  guests.  The  soloists  were,  John  Young, 
'95,  the  tenor,  William  Denham  Tucker,  the  bari- 
tone, and  Frank  Croxton,  the  basso.  After  the  concert 
the  club  was  entertained  at  the  Providence  Art  Club 
by  Edwin  A.  Burlingame  and  H.  Nelson  Campbell, 
of  the  committee,  and  there  again  sang  informally. 
On  the  following  day  the  club  was  given  a  Rhode  Is- 

C    26    ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

land  Clam  Bake  at  the  Squantum  Club  by  John  Carter 
Brown  Woods,  '72,  Edward  Carrington,  '73,  William 
Ely/7S,  Edward  Francis  Ely, '79,  and  Horatio  Rogers 
Nightingale, '83.  After  the  dinner  the  club  sang  for  the 
pleasure  of  their  hosts  and  friends. 

A  charming  reception  was  tendered  to  the  visiting 
delegates  and  invited  guests  at  the  Rhode  Island  School 
of  Design  on  Wednesday  evening  after  the  concert. 
The  reception  was  the  first  given  at  the  school  since 
the  opening  of  the  special  loan  exhibition  of  early 
American  art,  already  described,  and  was  attended  by 
a  large  and  distinguished  company.  In  the  receiving  line 
were  the  following  trustees  of  the  school:  Mrs.  Gustav 
Radeke,  Jesse  H.  Metcalf,  Theodore  Francis  Green, 
'87,  Miss  Lida  Shaw  King,  Dr.  G.  Alder  Blumer,  See- 
ber  Edwards,  '91,  Howard  Hoppin,  Harold  Webster 
Ostby,  Henry  Dexter  Sharpe,  '94,  Howard  O.  Sturges, 
and  the  director,  Louis  Earle  Rowe,  '04. 

A  special  chapel  service  for  the  student  body, to  which 
only  members  of  the  University  were  invited, began  the 
anniversary  programme  of  Thursday,  fourteenth  Octo- 
ber, the  final  day  of  the  festival.  President  Faunce  pre- 
sided, and  introduced  William  Paine  Sheffield,  Jr.,  of  the 
Senior  class.  President  of  the  Cammarian  Club,  who  said 
that  "  from  the  standpoint  of  the  students,  the  most  im- 
portant result  of  the  celebration  would  be  a  clearer  un- 
derstanding of  the  life  of  Brown  University."  Mr.  John 
D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  '97,  followed,  and  spoke  upon  the 
necessity  and  value  of  application  in  the  life  of  students. 
Hon.  William  H.  Taft  summarized  the  rich  traditions 
clustering  about  Brown,  and  congratulated  students  and 
alumni  on  being  connected  with  so  famous  an  Alma 
Mater.  President  Frank  Johnson  Goodnow,  of  Johns 

C  27  ] 


Brown  University 

Hopkins  University,  spoke  of  the  spirit  of  cooperation 
which  has  characterized  the  history  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity. President  Jacob  Gould  Schurman,  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, was  the  last  speaker,  giving  as  his  impression 
of  Brown  that  it  was  a  university  of  men.  The  exercises 
closed  with  the  singing  of  a  stanza  of  "Alma  Mater.'' 

The  second  academic  procession  to  the  Meeting- 
House  for  the  University  Address  and  the  Conferring 
of  Degrees  was  as  noteworthy  in  its  personnel  and 
striking  in  its  color-scheme  as  that  of  the  previous  day. 
Principal  Peterson  in  the  University  Address  empha- 
sized the  importance  of  a  study  of  the  humanities  and 
mathematics  in  the  training  of  the  citizen.  After  the 
return  of  the  procession  to  the  campus  and  its  disper- 
sal the  visiting  delegates  and  invited  guests  were  en- 
tertained at  luncheon  by  the  Women's  College  at  the 
Sayles  Gymnasium.  The  committee  in  charge  of  the 
luncheon  were  Mrs.  Albert  Granger  Harkness,  Mrs. 
Elisha  H.  Howard,  and  Miss  Louise  C.  Hoppin. 

The  lively  athletic  programme  carried  out  on  An- 
drews Field  on  the  afternoon  of  Thursday  was  novel 
as  regards  the  children,  and  exhilarating  and  pleasing 
in  all  its  features  to  the  great  audience  of  alumni  and 
college  guests  there  assembled.  The  children  had  pro- 
vided their  own  costumes  and  equipment,  studying  their 
parts  out  of  school  hours  and  carrying  out  the  ideas 
they  had  imbibed  of  the  beginnings  of  Rhode  Island. 
"The  salute  to  the  flag,"  as  executed  by  them,  is  given 
every  morning  at  the  opening  of  every  school  in  Provi- 
dence. After  their  part  of  the  exercises  was  over  the 
children  remained,  delighted  spectators  of  the  sports, 
as  guests  of  the  University. 

The  races,  participated  in  by  the  pupils  in  the  pre- 

C    28    ] 


A  Commemorative  Sketch 

paratory  schools  and  the  collegians,  were  run  off  in  a 
spirited  manner,  and  the  outcome  of  the  football  game 
between  Brown  and  Wesleyan  was  very  satisfactory 
to  a  Brown  audience.  The  committee  in  charge  of  the 
sports  comprised  Professor  Frederick  William  Marvel, 
Henry  Bray  ton  Rose,  '81,  and  Herbert  Larned  Dor- 
rance,  '07. 

The  University  Dinner  of  Thursday  evening  brought 
the  college  celebration  to  a  successful  and  dignified  con- 
clusion. In  the  after-dinner  speaking  Governor  Pothier 
represented  the  State  of  Rhode  Island, President  Low- 
ell, the  American  Institutions,  Archdeacon  Cunning- 
ham, Foreign  Institutions,  Ambassador  Naon,  South 
America,Mr.  Robert  Cooper  Smith, K.C., Canada,  Hon. 
William  H.  Taft,the  Country  at  Large,  and  President 
Faunce,  the  University.  From  the  invocation  of  Presi- 
dent Faunce  at  the  opening  service  on  Sunday  to  the 
Latin  farewell  of  Dr.  Keen,  the  presiding  officer  at  the 
dinner  of  Thursday,  every  function  had  passed  off 
agreeably  under  perfect  weather  conditions,  to  the  de- 
light and  pride  of  the  alumni  and  friends  of  Brown. 

This  commemorative  sketch  is  an  attempt  merely 
to  outline  what  was  in  all  respects  a  dignified,  diversi- 
fied, and  adequate  celebration,  the  nature  and  satisfying 
character  of  which  will  further  appear  in  the  pages  fol- 
lowing. "  What  Brown  means  to  those  who  know  it 
best, who  have  been  associated  with  it  as  teachers,  stu- 
dents, and  friends,  could  hardly  be  put  upon  the  printed 
page.  Each  building  is  a  silent  reminder,  every  class- 
room has  its  store  of  traditions.  Around  the  American 
college,  particularly  around  this  old  New  England  col- 
lege,rich  memories  cluster  and, like  the  ivies  on  its  mel- 
lowing structures,  increase  with  every  passing  year." 

c  29  ] 


II 

The  Celebration 


The  University  Sermon 

ON  Sunday,  eleventh  October,  the  University  Ser- 
mon was  delivered  by  the  President  of  the  Uni- 
versity,the  Rev.  William  Herbert  Perry  Faunce,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  in  the  First  Baptist  Meeting-House,  at  four 
o'clock. 

The  service  began  with  an  organ  prelude, — Beetho- 
ven's "Andante  from  the  Fifth  Symphony," — played 
by  Miss  Emma  J.  Williams.  Prayer  was  offered  by  the 
Rev.  John  Frederick  Vichert,  D.D.: 

WE  praise  Thee,0  God,  we  acknowledge  Thee  to 
be  the  Lord.  All  the  earth  doth  worshipThee,the 
Father  everlasting.  Accept  our  praise  and  worship,  we 
pray  Thee,  and  look  favorably  upon  us  as  we  offer  our 
petitions.  We  give  Thee  thanks  this  day  for  the  light  and 
life  which  were  manifested  unto  us  in  Jesus  Christ.  We 
thank  Thee  for  all  the  service  He  has  inspired  and  for  all 
the  light  He  has  kindled  in  the  world.  We  thank  Thee 
for  all  institutions  which  have  sought  to  extend  the  shin- 
ing of  that  light  and  which  have  given  to  men  clearer 
insight, fuller  knowledge.  Especially  do  we  thank  Thee 
for  the  college  at  whose  call  we  meet  to-day.  We  thank 
Thee  for  the  years  in  her  history  with  all  they  have  held 
and  with  all  their  rich  fruitage.  We  thank  Thee  for  the 
memories  that  come  crowding  out  of  the  past.  May  they 
kindle  inspiration,  waken  hope,  and  strengthen  effort, 
until  we  shall  be  able  to  make  the  present  and  all  the 
future  noble,  worthy  of  the  past,  useful  unto  men,  and 
acceptable  in  Thy  sight.  To  that  end  bless  the  service 
of  this  hour.  Grant  grace  and  wisdom  unto  Thy  ser- 
vant who  shall  speak  to  us.  Grant  unto  us  hearing  ears 


Brown  University 

and  understanding  hearts.  Bless  all  the  exercises  of 
the  week,  and  grant  that  through  all  there  may  come 
strength  to  Thy  servants  and  honor  unto  Him  whose  we 
are  and  whom  w^e  serve,  for  Thy  name's  sake.  Amen. 

The  anthem  by  Edmund  Turner, "  Great  and  Mar- 
vellous are  Thy  Works,"  was  then  sung  by  a  chorus 
selected  from  the  Arion  Club,  under  the  direction  of 
Jules  Jordan,  Mus.  Doc.  This  chorus  was  composed  as 
follows : 

Sopranos:  Mrs.  Sarah  Aldrich,  Mrs.  M.  P.  Bates, 
Miss  Minette  Beckwith,  Miss  Grace  Berquist,  Mrs. 
W.  F.  Bevan,  Miss  Edna  Barck,  Miss  Esther  Carlson, 
Mrs.  S.  H.  Clemence,  Mrs.  W.  H.  Clough,  Miss  Ellen 
A.  Day,  Miss  Mary  E.  Dunham,  Miss  Edwina  Hodge- 
kiss,  Miss  Teresa  McCabe,  Miss  Lucy  M.  Peirce,  Mrs. 
J.  H.  Lloyd. 

Altos:  Mrs.  D.  Berquist,  Miss  Alice  Darling,  Miss 
Grace  B.  Davis,  Miss  Bertha  Hitt,  Miss  Faith  McCor- 
mack,  Miss  Ada  Smith,  Miss  Marion  Whittle,  Mrs. 
Eugene  Medbery,  Mrs.  R.  A.  Young. 

Tenors:  George W.  Ansell,  Jesse  T.  Baker, Roderick 
Beaudreau,  George  A.  Freeman,  Arthur  Hunt,  John 
Loxsom,  John  McVay,  Walter  E.  Rogers,  Robert  J. 
Tupper,  Charles  Walker,  Harry  Wigley. 

Basses:  Samuel  D.  Baker,  Butler  L.  Church,  F.  O. 
Clapp,  William  Estes,  A.  H.  Ebeling,  H.  Humphrey, 
A.  D.  Hawkinson,  Edward  F.  Hunt,  C.  Lindquist,  James 
E.  McStay,  Edward  Lariviere,  W.  F.  McOscar,  Charles 
H.  Richards,  Norman  Smith,  M.  J.  Sullivan,  C.Wilson 
Stan  wood,  Herbert  Wilkinson. 

The  Lesson  was  read  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Vichert,  and 
was  followed  by  the  singing  of  Bishop  Heber's  hymn, 

C   34  ] 


The  University  Sermon 

"  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  !  Lord  God  Almighty,"  by  the  con- 
gregation. 

The  University  Sermon  was  then  delivered  by  Presi- 
dent Faunce. 

Psalm  121  :  8.   The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  going  out  and  thy 
coming  in  ^  from  this  time  forth  and  even  forever. 

THY  going  out  and  thy  coming  in — those  two 
phrases  describe  the  critical  times  in  our  human 
experience.  Much  of  our  life  must  be  uneventful,  placid, 
commonplace.  But  the  going  out  and  the  coming  in,  the 
starting  and  the  stopping,  the  farewell  and  the  arrival, 
— these  crises  of  existence  stir  the  deeps  within  us  and 
unseal  the  fountains  of  laughter  or  of  tears. 

Much  of  an  ocean  voyage  is  uneventful,  even  monot- 
onous. There  is  nothing  in  particular  to  do,  nothing  to 
record,  nothing  to  see,  save  the  vast  sky  above  us  and 
the  waste  of  waters  around  us.  But  the  day  when  we 
sailed  on  our  first  voyage,  the  going  out  from  the  dock , 
when  the  screw  churned  the  waters  white,  and  friends 
waved  a  last  farewell,  and  America  receded  in  the  mist, 
— we  shall  not  soon  forget  that.  And  the  coming  in  at 
some  foreign  port,  the  sight  of  the  foreign  flags  and  the 
swarthy  faces,  and  the  sound  of  the  jargon  of  strange 
tongues, — that  arrival  in  a  far-away  land  made  an  im- 
pression we  can  never  lose. 

But  the  real  departures  in  life  are  not  geographical. 
They  are  changes  not  of  place, but  of  temper  and  ideal. 
They  are  migrations  of  the  spirit.  The  real  exits  and  en- 
trances are  for  the  individual  the  transition  from  youth 
to  mature  age,  or  from  old  opinions  to  new.  The  real 
going  out  of  a  nation  is  the  expression  of  its  soul  in 
new  institutions  that  far  outlast  their  founders,  and  fur- 

C  35   ] 


Brown  University 

nish  explorers  and  captains  for  new  adventures  in  the 
spiritual  realm. 

Our  thoughts  turn  back  this  week  to  the  heroic  age 
of  America,  when  a  people  poor  in  purse,  exiled  from 
ancient  seats  of  Old  World  culture,  founded  their  first 
colleges,  establishing  nine  of  them  before  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution.  The  heart  of  the  nation  went  forth 
in  sacrificial  devotion  to  those  nine  feeble,  strug- 
gling schools.  "One  of  the  first  things  we  longed  for 
and  looked  after,"  says  the  quaint  narrative,  "  was  to 
advance  learning  and  perpetuate  it  to  posterity.''  So 
essential  were  these  colleges  to  the  national  life,  so  in- 
destructible was  the  principle  they  enshrined,  that  all 
of  them — Harvard,  William  and  Mary,  Yale,  Prince- 
ton, Pennsylvania,  Columbia,  Brown,  Rutgers,  Dart- 
mouth— are  to-day  alive  and  vigorous,  and  girding 
themselves  for  the  centuries  to  follow.  Why  were  they 
established  ?  What  conviction  and  impulsion  lay  behind 
this  efflorescence  of  colonial  life .?  The  impulsion  was 
twofold :  religious  faith  and  devotion  to  public  service. 

In  all  but  one  of  the  nine  pre-Revolutionary  col- 
leges the  dominant  impulse  was  religious  faith.  To  ex- 
tend that  faith  among  white  men  or  Indians,  to  nourish 
it  by  sound  learning,  to  equip  it  with  a  competent  min- 
istry, was  one  great  aim  of  the  colonial  education.  Early 
New  England  life  was  religious  to  the  core.  It  was  true 
of  the  builders  of  our  first  colleges,  as  of  those  who 
*'  groined  the  aisles  of  ancient  Rome,"  that "  themselves 
from  God  they  could  not  free."  But  religion  is  a  crea- 
tive force — the  greatest  known  to  history.  Whether  re- 
ligion shall  create  good  or  evil  depends  on  the  kind  of 
religion — create  something  it  must.  The  worst  things 
in  human  history  are  the  offspring  of  religion,  and  the 

C   S6  ] 


The  University  Sermon 

best  things  as  well.  Religion  has  created  tyrannies, 
wars,  and  autos-da-fe ,  and  also  cathedrals,  hospitals, 
and  schools.  The  moment  it  ceases  to  create,  it  begins 
to  die. 

Yet  most  religions  have  given  no  impulse  to  learn- 
ing. They  have  exalted  cult  or  ceremony,  which  can 
best  be  performed  without  analysis.  President  Wilson 
rightly  affirms  that  "  scholarship  has  never  been  asso- 
ciated with  any  religion  except  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ."  But  under  the  Puritan  interpretation  of  Chris- 
tianity schools  were  absolutely  essential.  The  Puritans 
dealt  directly  with  man's  intelligence.  They  reasoned  of 
temperance,  righteousness,  and  judgment.  They  em- 
phasized the  intellectual  elements  in  reHgion,  almost  to 
the  exclusion  of  the  sensuous  or  emotional  or  sacra- 
mental. They  tested  all  truth  by  the  Bible,  whose  vast 
and  varied  literature,  covering  fifteen  hundred  years 
of  history,  demanded  high  intelligence  for  its  under- 
standing. Such  a  religion  could  not  thrive  except  in 
an  atmosphere  intellectually  keen  and  bracing.  There- 
fore this  ancient  meeting-house  was  built  "  for  the  pub- 
lick  Worship  of  Almighty  God ;  and  also  for  holding 
Commencement  in,"  since  a  worship  which  consisted 
in  high  thinking  about  the  Highest  could  not  survive 
apart  from  institutions  in  which  men  are  trained  to 
think. 

Now  a  religious  origin  does  one  important  thing  for 
any  institution:  it  gives  breadth  of  outlook  and  univer- 
sality of  appeal.  Religion  at  least  means  a  sense  of  the 
relation  of  all  men  and  all  things  to  one  another  and 
to  the  infinite.  I  know  how  religion  has  been  perverted 
into  sectarianism  and  has  given  up  to  party  what  was 
meant  for  mankind.  Yet  a  vital  religious  impulsion 


Brown  University 

ultimately  means  for  any  institution  release  from  the 
petty,  the  personal,  and  the  parochial ;  it  means  that  all 
our  works  shall  be  "begun,  continued,  and  ended"  in 
God.  Such  a  school  cannot  be  a  mere  local  school, since 
all  who  share  the  religious  faith  are  interested  in  the 
enterprise.  It  is  saved  from  belonging  to  one  party, one 
race,  one  stratum  of  society,  since  religion  overflows  all 
such  boundaries.  It  is  saved  from  crass  materialism, 
since  the  faith  is  ever  affirming  the  value  of  the  soul. 
It  is  saved  from  mere  bread-and-butter  education, since 
even  the  most  iron-bound  church  catechism  puts  in  its 
forefront  the  sonorous  question :  *'  What  is  the  chief  end 
of  man  ? "  An  institution  that  springs  out  of  the  heart  of 
faith  is  necessarily  the  home  of  idealism,  of  universal 
truths  and  far  horizons,  of  boundless  hope  and  bound- 
less sacrifice.  The  astonishing  thing  about  the  colonial 
colleges  was  the  greatness  of  their  ideas  coexisting 
with  the  slenderness  of  their  resources.  That  greatness 
was  born  of  religious  faith. 

The  Brown  University  charter  therefore  speaks  with 
the  accent  of  those  who  have  surveyed  the  past  and  are 
planning  for  the  ages  to  come.  When  "  liberal "  was  es- 
teemed a  dangerous  word, — as  it  still  is  in  some  quar- 
ters,— the  charter  applied  that  word  to  the  college  that 
was  to  be.  When  "Catholic''  was  esteemed  a  sectarian 
appellation, the  charter  claimed  the  word, and  fearlessly 
described  the  new  college  as  both  liberal  and  Catholic 
— terms  which  I  think  no  other  college  in  America  has 
ever  used  to  describe  itself.  When  science — at  least  in 
the  sense  of  physical  science — was  esteemed  hostile  to 
the  Bible  and  to  morals,  our  charter  calmly  announced: 
"  The  public  teaching  shall  in  general  respect  the  sci- 
ences." When  in  one  colonial  college  every  teacher 

I  38  : 


The  University  Sermon 

was  obliged  to  prove  his  orthodoxy  by  subscribing  to 
the  Saybrook  platform,  and  in  another  every  teacher 
must  sign  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  before  entering  any 
class-room,  our  charter  quietly  insisted:  "There  shall 
never  be  admitted  any  religious  tests,  but  all  the  mem- 
bers hereof  shall  forever  enjoy  full,  free,  absolute,  and 
uninterrupted  liberty  of  conscience" — where  the  legal 
phrases  take  on  a  lyric  tone,  defying  misconstruction 
and  scorning  consequence. 

Thus  did  the  founders  speak  with  the  accents  of  great 
men  living  in  a  great  era.  The  denomination  chiefly  con- 
cerned in  the  founding  had  no  ecclesiastical  machinery 
by  which  to  control  the  college,  even  if  it  had  wished 
to  do  so.  Throughout  our  long  history  no  ecclesias- 
tical body  has  ever  attempted  to  choose  our  teachers, 
or  mould  our  teaching,  or  direct  our  policy.  Many  col- 
leges have  obtained  this  freedom  with  a  great  price ;  but 
Brown  was  free-born.  As  Rhode  Island  gave  to  all  the 
colonies  an  example  of  freedom  of  conscience  within  a 
civil  state,  so  Brown  gave  to  all  the  colleges  one  of  the 
earliest  examples  of  full  freedom  of  teaching  within  a 
Christian  institution.  Long  before  Lehrfreiheit  was  pro- 
claimed in  Germany  it  was  advocated  and  enjoined  on 
Narragansett  Bay.  The  great  phrases  of  our  founders 
would  not  be  used  in  any  charter  that  we  might  write 
to-day.  We  have  learned  the  dangers  of  freedom  and 
we  are  busy  with  safeguards  and  defenses  against  abuse. 
But  our  fathers  were  then  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle 
with  Europe. Freedom  could  be  guarded  later — it  must 
be  asserted  at  once.  So  they  made  in  the  name  of  reli- 
gion one  of  the  noblest  assertions  in  academic  history, 
and  we  their  children  have  hardly  yet  caught  up  with 
their  style  of  thought  and  speech.  Colonial  thinking, 

C  39  ] 


Brown  University- 
like  colonial  architecture,  has  a  simplicity  and  ease  and 
assurance  which  we  can  admire  but  seldom  reproduce. 

A  second  impulse  in  the  founding  of  the  early 
colleges  was  devotion  to  public  service.  The  founders 
seemed  to  have  studied  Milton's  great  description  of 
education  as  "that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly, 
skilfully  and  magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both  pub- 
lic and  private,  of  peace  and  war  .  .  .  stirred  up  with 
high  hopes  of  living  to  be  brave  men  and  worthy  pa- 
triots, dear  to  God  and  famous  to  all  ages."  The  same 
spirit  breathes  in  the  first  sentence  of  the  Brown  char- 
ter, where  the  object  of  a  college  is  said  to  be  "pre- 
serving in  the  community  a  succession  of  men  duly 
qualified  for  discharging  the  offices  of  life  with  useful- 
ness and  reputation." 

The  founders  of  our  colleges  were  not  afraid  of 
the  word  "useful."  Again  and  again  they  repeat  it  in 
various  charters.  The  colonial  colleges  were  truly  voca- 
tional. Latin  was  studied  because  needed  in  diplomacy, 
in  law,  in  divinity,  in  all  the  higher  ranges  of  effort. 
Mathematics  was  almost  ignored,  because  not  obvi- 
ously needed.  Language  and  logic,  analysis  and  synthe- 
sis, thought  and  its  expression  in  speech, — this  was  the 
staple  of  instruction.  But  if  this  was  vocational,  it  aimed 
at  what  was  then  the  broadest  of  human  vocations. 
The  Puritan  preacher  was  orator,  philosopher,  man 
of  letters,  publicist,  social  arbiter,  and  a  college  which 
fitted  him  for  his  vocation  was  really  giving  a  large 
and  generous  training  for  the  service  of  the  state.  The 
curriculum  aimed  not  at  an  immediate  livelihood,  but  at 
a  rounded  and  serviceable  life.  It  taught  young  men  to 
think  in  terms  of  nations  and  continents.  It  nourished 
public  spirit,  it  stimulated  debate  on  constitutional  ques- 

C  40  ] 


The  University  Sermon 

tions,  it  made  the  student  both  politician  and  patriot, 
and  the  college  career  opened  directly  into  the  coun- 
cils of  the  state. 

At  a  later  date  the  college  swung  away  from  this 
ideal,  and  aimed  at  a  culture  dissevered  from  service. 
Now  we  are  returning  to  the  idea  of  the  fathers,  that 
there  can  be  no  culture  apart  from  purpose.  When  pur- 
pose informs  and  energizes  the  college,  then  culture  is 
saved  from  dilettantism,  then  learning  gets  a  new  grip 
on  life,  and  the  college  becomes  not  a  finishing  school, 
but  a  genuine  commencement.  Our  schools  of  finance, 
of  political  science,  our  courses  in  social  service,  in  di- 
plomacy, in  teacher-training,  instead  of  being  false  to 
the  colonial  idea  of  education  are  really  a  return  to  the 
conviction  that  only  purposive  study  can  give  true  cul- 
ture—  provided  the  purpose  be  broad  and  deep. 

No  wonder  that  from  such  colleges  came  the  lead- 
ers of  early  America.  Four-fifths  of  those  who  signed 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  received  a  liberal 
education.  From  the  Harvard  yard  the  student  patriots 
marched  in  squads  to  Bunker  Hill.  Old  Nassau  Hall 
at  Princeton  was  battered  by  cannon  and  the  students 
were  driven  out  to  do  or  die.  Our  own  University  Hall 
was  for  years  closed  to  study  and  open  only  to  the  army 
of  defense.  Out  of  the  twenty-five  hundred  college 
graduates  in  America  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution 
came  in  large  measure  the  minds  that  controlled  the 
country  both  on  fields  of  debate  and  fields  of  battle.  To 
such  men  learning  was,  in  the  stately  phrases  of  Lord 
Bacon, "not  a  terrace  for  a  wandering  and  variable 
mind  to  walk  up  and  down  with  a  fair  prospect;  ...  or 
a  shop  for  profit  or  sale;  .  .  .  but  a  rich  storehouse  for 
the  glory  of  the  creator  and  the  relief  of  man's  estate." 

n  41  ] 


Brown  University 

Immense  tenacity  of  purpose,  a  lofty  utilitarianism, 
marked  the  earliest  colleges  of  America.  Learning  was 
not  a  species  of  self-indulgence.  It  was  a  girding  of 
young  loins  for  the  service  of  the  nation. 

Are  we  wrong,  are  we  merely  superstitious,  if  we 
hold  that  those  early  leaders,  passing  through  our 
American  colleges,  have  left  a  portion  of  themselves 
behind.^  It  is  not  only  ivy  that  clings  to  ancient  walls 
— it  is  memories,  echoes,  inspirations.  The  very  stones 
cry  out  a  summons.  The  weathered  bricks  become  ar- 
ticulate. The  portrait  shows  us  eyes  still  radiant  and  lips 
that,  being  dead,  yet  speak.  In  the  rooms  where  Henry 
Wheaton,  Adoniram  Judson,  and  John  Hay  studied 
does  a  presence  still  abide  .^  Are  those  fresh  young  voices 
still  recorded  on  the  arches  of  this  ancient  meeting- 
house, as  on  phonographic  disks,  where  they  may  yet 
become  audible.^  Is  an  aura  left  by  the  departing  per- 
sonality, as  odors  cling  after  flowers  are  gone.^  Mere 
superstition,  says  the  rationalist.  Very  well:  we  will  be 
rational.  But  we  turn  from  the  rationalist  to  the  poet 
Wordsworth,  describing  the  University  of  Cambridge: 

'"''Imagination  slept ^ 
And  yet  not  utterly.  I  could  not  print 
Ground  xuhere  the  grass  had  yielded  to  the  steps 
Of  generations  of  illustrious  men 
Unmoved.  I  could  not  alivays  lightly  pass 
Through  the  sarne  gateways.,  sleep  where  they  had  slept., 
Wake  where  they  had  -waked.,  range  that  enclosure  old., 
That  garden  of  great  intellects.,  undisturbed.'''' 

Such  was  the  going  out  of  our  American  colleges,  pre- 
served and  guided  by  unseen  power.  And  what  of  the 
coming  in,  part  of  which  we  are  permitted  to  witness, 
and  in  which  we  share  .f^  Is  the  arrival  worthy  of  the  high 

C  42   ] 


The  University  Sermon 

hopes  with  which  the  vessel  sailed?  Into  what  have  our 
colleges  come,  either  deliberately  or  unawares? 

It  is  a  serious  matter  that  the  colleges  which  started 
amid  national  penury  have  come  into  an  era  of  ever- 
expanding  national  wealth.  They  have  entered,  like  Is- 
rael, into  a  land  of 'Svells  that  thou  diggedst  not,  vine- 
yards and  olive-trees  wliich  thou  plantedst  not."  If  our 
land  does  not  flow  with  milk  and  honey,  it  flows  with 
mighty  water-powers,  with  stores  of  petroleum,  with 
the  product  of  blast-furnace  and  dynamo  and  loom.  An 
enormous  expansion  of  territory  and  of  human  control 
over  material  things  has  transformed  our  civilization. 
The  colleges  have  grown  with  the  country  they  repre- 
sent, and  change  of  size  often  means  subtle  change  of 
quality  and  ideal.  All  around  us  are  rising  new  labora- 
tories, libraries,  dormitories.  We  are  equipped  with  sta- 
diums that  vie  with  the  Roman  Colosseum ;  with  pools 
of  clear  water  entered  by  marble  porches  like  those  of 
Caracalla;  with  towers  that  recall  the  outlines  of  Mag- 
dalen College  or  the  resurgent  campanile  of  Venice ; 
with  gates  that  swing  open  on  fair  homes  for  favored 
youth.  If  Socrates  in  his  old  ironic  mood  were  to  visit 
us,  would  he  cry  out  once  again:  "How  many  things 
there  are  I  do  not  need"? 

Certainly  the  institutions  that  were  once  tested  by 
poverty  are  now  being  tested  by  a  luxurious  civiliza- 
tion around  them. The  students  are  under  a  severe  test. 
The  student  disorders  and  rebellions  of  a  century  ago 
have  disappeared.  College  vices  have  greatly  dimin- 
ished. But  college  distractions  have  multiplied  to  an 
alarming  degree.  In  the  last  ten  years  probably  as 
many  students  in  American  colleges  have  been  demor- 
alized by  the  automobile  as  by  alcohol.  The  dazzling 

C   43   1 


Brown  University 

attractions  of  a  luxury-loving  age,  the  dissipations  of 
energy  which  destroy  the  power  to  focus  the  mind, con- 
stitute the  greatest  present  danger  to  American  educa- 
tion. We  are  obliged  to  remove  the  sons  and  daughters 
from  some  of  our  best  homes  in  order  to  give  them  an 
education.  We  are  obliged  to  warn  our  students  not  only 
against  the  vices  of  the  underworld,  but  against  the 
distractions  and  follies  of  the  upper  world.  The  scholar 
should  have  at  least  as  rigorous  a  training  as  the  athlete. 
Enervating  pleasures,  late  hours,  conversation  without 
ideas  or  ideals — this  is  not  the  atmosphere  in  which  a 
strong  man  can  run  a  race. 

And  our  teachers  also  are  being  tested.  Can  we  of 
the  Faculty  still  keep  the  soul  on  top.?  Can  we  survive 
material  success .''  We  are  tempted  to  imagine  that  a 
greater  library  automatically  involves  a  greater  love 
of  books.  We  are  tempted  to  forget  that  the  greatest 
discoveries  have  sometimes  come  out  of  the  shabbiest 
apology  for  an  intellectual  workshop.  We  forget  Frank- 
lin's equipment  of  a  kite-string  and  a  key.  We  forget 
Charles  Darwin's  five  years  on  the  Beagle,  a  vessel 
of  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  tons,  where  he  slept  on 
a  table  and  peered  through  a  microscope  in  the  poop- 
cabin.  Still  intellectual  life  is  propagated  from  soul  to 
soul,  and  not  from  apparatus.  Still  the  interested  teacher 
is  interesting,  whatever  his  equipment.  Still  the  enthu- 
siasm of  scholarship  is  to  be  caught,  not  taught.  Still 
that  which  draws  and  holds  the  student  is  the  realiza- 
tion that  something  really  important  is  now  occurring 
in  the  teacher's  mind.  When  Francis  Wayland  was  here, 
the  total  endowment  of  Brown  University  amounted  to 
131,300 — plus  Francis  Wayland!  Without  large  en- 
dowment to-day  our  education  would  be  mere  pretense 

C   44   ] 


The  University  Sermon 

—  so  vastly  have  the  times  and  demands  changed.  But 
we  have  need  on  anniversary  occasions  to  go  back  to 
the  day  of  small  things  and  great  ideals,  and  draw  fresh 
waters  from  the  ancient  fountains. 

The  colonial  college  has  also  come  into  a  new  under- 
standing of  the  search  for  truth.  What  we  now  call 
research  was  unknown  in  the  early  days  of  the  New 
England  college,  as  it  was  then  unknown  at  Oxford  or 
Cambridge.  Knowledge  was  conceived  as  a  deposit  to 
be  handed  down.  The  teacher  wasto  transmit, but  hardly 
to  increase,  the  sacred  trust.  As  late  as  the  middle  of 
the  nineteenth  century  the  trustees  of  Columbia  Univer- 
sity mentioned  the  fact  that  three  professors  were  writ- 
ing books,  as  a  possible  cause  of  inefficiency.  In  colonial 
days  the  emphasis  was  all  on  communication,  not  on 
discovery.  One  teacher  usually  taught  all  the  subjects 
to  each  class,  the  president  being  the  sole  instructor 
throughout  the  Senior  year.  The  teacher  followed  the 
rule,  not  golden,  of  teaching  others  as  others  had  taught 
him. 

But  residence  in  Germany  changed  all  that.  As  our 
young  teachers  came  back  from  the  German  univer- 
sities, they  came  fired  with  a  passion  for  truth  such  as 
animated  the  philosophers  of  ancient  Greece.  To  push 
out  the  boundaries  of  knowledge  at  some  one  point 
on  the  circumference  was  their  glowing  desire,  their 
demonstration  of  equipment  for  university  position. 
Such  devotion  to  research  is  one  of  the  deepest  and 
purest  passions  of  the  human  spirit.  It  is  the  flame  that 
must  burn  forever  on  the  altars  of  the  university.  It 
means  a  search  without  hope  of  gain,  without  fear  of 
consequence,  without  count  of  cost.  It  springs  from  the 
assumption — religious  at  the  heart  of  it — that  the  uni- 

[  45 ;] 


Brown  University 

verse  is  rational,  is  consistent,  and  that  every  one  that 
asketh  receiveth  and  to  him  that  knocketh  it  shall  be 
opened.  Only  he  who  has  felt  that  passion  for  pure  truth 
can  describe  it  or  communicate  it  to  others.  Those  who 
are  filled  with  that  sacred  fire  may  become  to  America 
what  the  Hebrew  prophets  were  to  ancient  Israel,  when 
"  they  searched  what  or  what  manner  of  time  the  spirit 
within  them  did  signify,"  when  they  by  spiritual  intui- 
tion anticipated  events  and  truths  that  later  were  flashed 
upon  the  consciousness  of  the  nation.  We  of  the  Fac- 
ulty are  not  to  teach  as  we  have  been  taught.  We  are  to 
teach  what  the  world  will  believe  fifty  years  from  now. 
We  are  to  see  visions  and  dream  dreams.  We  are  to 
proclaim  a  deeper  insight  into  reality,  a  fairer  social 
order,  a  nobler  organization  of  industry,  a  finer  code  of 
morals,  than  anything  the  world  is  yet  ready  to  accept. 
And  if  the  modern  Jerusalem  shall  stone  her  prophets 
and  kill  them  that  are  sent  unto  her,  it  will  be  true  now 
as  before,  that  the  prophet's  vision  cannot  die  or  his 
voice  be  utterly  stilled. 

The  colleges  are  also  coming  into  a  deeper  and 
broader  interpretation  of  the  Christian  faith.  If  we  were 
shut  up  in  the  cabin  of  an  ocean  steamer  with  the  found- 
ers of  our  colleges,  we  should  find  an  exchange  of  ideas 
somewhat  difficult.  We  should  find  those  men  speak- 
ing in  another  vocabulary,  dwelling  in  a  thought  world 
largely  shaped  by  John  Milton  and  John  Bunyan,  inno- 
cent of  all  we  now  mean  by  scientific  method.  Have  we 
then  entered  so  new  a  world  that  we  have  no  further 
connection  with  the  generation  in  which  these  colleges 
were  born?  To  think  so  would  be  to  show  ourselves 
without  the  sense  of  either  historic  continuity  or  moral 
obligation.  Separated  from  the  founders  we  might  be 

C  46  2 


The  University  Sermon 

by  their  quaint  vocabulary,  their  limited  world-view, 
their  outgrown  method.  But  we  are  forever  united  with 
them  in  purpose,  and  in  intellectual  and  spiritual  ideal. 
Their  God  is  our  God  for  ever  and  ever,  their  Christian 
evaluation  of  life  is  ours,  their  faith  that  the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  within  you  is  and  ever  shall  be  our  faith. 

The  University  in  thus  declaring  its  adherence  to 
the  Christian  religion  does  not  and  cannot  subscribe 
to  any  human  creed.  It  cannot  allow  any  ecclesiastical 
assembly  to  prescribe  its  studies  or  mould  its  policy. 
A  university  whose  standing  is  annually  determined  by 
church  authorities  or  by  mass-meetings  is  an  echo  and 
not  a  leader.  The  true  Christian  college  must  be  autono- 
mous, as  were  and  are  all  the  nine  colleges  founded 
before  the  Revolution.  But  just  because  it  is  autono- 
mous, it  realizes  its  solemn  responsibility  for  promot- 
ing the  Christian  ideal.  It  says  to  all  Christian  churches 
around  it:  "  We  sprang  from  your  loins  and  we  wish  to 
render  all  filial  honor  and  service.  The  phraseology  of 
the  class-room  may  differ  from  that  of  the  pulpit.  The 
methods  of  approach  must  differ.  The  human  values  you 
care  for  are  dear  to  us.  The  cure  of  souls  is  our  business 
also.  The  supremacy  of  righteousness,  the  sense  of  rev- 
erence for  the  unseen,  the  faith  in  the  eternal  issues  of 
human  life, — these  things  are  our  heritage  also.  We  co- 
operate with  you  in  guiding  adolescent  minds  through 
perilous  intellectual  awakening  into  assurance  of  the 
truth.  The  old-time  college  was  mainly  for  ministers; 
the  modern  college  is  for  the  ministering  life." 

This  Christian  ideahsm  humanizes  all  study  and 
makes  it  vital.  It  prevents  the  search  for  truth  from 
becoming  mere  grubbing  after  facts  hitherto  unknown 
because  not  worth  knowing.lt  prevents  the  intellectual 

[   47   ] 


Brown  University 

isolation  of  scholars  who  have  lost  the  forest  in  the 
trees.  It  prevents  the  sciences  from  becoming  inhuman- 
ities, and  saves  literature  from  becoming  material  for 
dissection.  It  sheds  over  class-room  and  laboratory  and 
play-ground  "the  light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land," 
and  in  that  light  the  path  of  duty  begins  to  shine.  We 
see  to-day  the  Christian  ideal  antagonized,  if  not  suj>- 
pressed,  by  whole  sections  of  the  modern  world — by 
the  perverted  philosophy  of  force,  by  the  arrogant  mili- 
tarism of  Europe,  by  theories  that  would  base  all  na- 
tional greatness  on  dreadnaughts  and  battalions.  Be  it 
ours  at  a  time  when  civilization  itself  is  shaken  by  ad- 
herence to  shallow  philosophies  and  belated  ideals, — 
be  it  ours  to  bow  in  new  allegiance  to  the  idealism  of 
the  fathers,  which  gave  freedom  and  vigor  to  the  colo- 
nial college  and  to  American  life.  Be  it  ours  to  affirm 
again  our  faith  in  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  world. 
Then  all  the  future  of  our  colleges  shall  be  a  progres- 
sive entrance  into  the  unfolding  thought  and  purpose 
of  God. 

After  the  singing  of  Gounod's  anthem, "  Send  out  Thy 
Light,"  by  the  Arion  Chorus,  prayer  was  offered  by 
the  Rev.  Frank  Warfield  Crowder,  D.D. : 

ALMIGHTY  and  everlasting  God,  whose  blessed 
^/jL  Son  was  manifested  that  He  might  destroy  the 
power  of  darkness,  and  make  us  the  children  of  light, 
and  who  was  the  true  Light  that  lighteth  every  man 
that  Cometh  into  the  world ;  lighten  our  darkness,  we 
beseech  Thee,  with  the  full  and  abiding  knowledge  of 
Thy  truth.  Send  Thy  blessing  upon  all  efforts  to  train 
the  youth  of  our  land  in  intelligence,  virtue,  and  piety. 
Bless  all  schools  and  colleges  of  sound  learning ;  look 

[  48   ] 


The  University  Sermon 

with  especial  favor  upon  this  University  in  these  days 
of  commemoration  and  rejoicing  ;  endue  its  Corporation 
and  Faculty  with  a  right  sense  of  their  high  steward- 
ship, and  with  wisdom,  faith,  and  zeal  patterned  after 
Him  who  was  the  Teacher  come  from  God.  Stir  up  the 
hearts  of  its  friends  and  supporters  to  understand  aright 
its  responsibilities  and  aspirations,  and  lead  them  to  a 
wise  cooperation  in  its  encouragement  and  endowment. 
Illuminate  the  minds,  purify  the  hearts,  and  fashion  the 
lives  of  its  students,  so  that  they  may  come  forth  a  noble 
host,  made  ready  and  consecrated  for  large  and  abiding 
service  and  power.  Send  out  Thy  light  that  it  may  lead 
them.  Bless  everywhere  those  who  are  striving  for  a 
Christian  education  amidst  the  hindrances  of  poverty 
and  friendlessness;  and  raise  up  friends  and  strengthen 
wise  agencies,  to  cheer  their  noble  endeavor.  Pour  out 
Thy  Spirit  from  on  high,  and  sanctify  all  minds  and 
hearts  for  Thine  acceptable  service  here  and  Thy 
blessed  kingdom  hereafter.  All  which  we  ask  in  the 
name  of  Him, who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life, 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen. 

The  hymn,  "O  God,  our  help  in  ages  past,"  by  Isaac 
Watts,  was  then  sung  by  the  congregation,  and  after 
prayer  the  Benediction  was  pronounced  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Crowder.  An  organ  postlude — a  selection  from 
"Noel,"  by  Saint-Saens — brought  the  service  to  a 
close. 


C   49   3 


The  Religious  History 

of  the  University 

ON  Monday,  twelfth  October,  the  Religious  His- 
tory of  the  University  was  commemorated  in 
addresses  in  Sayles  Memorial  Hall  by  representatives 
of  the  religious  denominations  mentioned  in  the  col- 
lege charter.  At  half  after  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon 
President  Faunce  called  the  assemblage  to  order  and 
presented  the  Rev.  Clarence  Augustine  Barbour,  D.D., 
of  the  class  of  1888,  as  the  Presiding  Officer,  who 
spoke  as  follows: 

Very  significantly  and  fittingly  this  early  session  of 
our  commemoration  is  given  to  the  consideration  of 
the  relation  of  Brown  University  to  the  great  themes 
of  the  Christian  Ministry  and  of  Missions. 

From  the  early  days  until  the  present  this  school  of 
learning  has  been  characterized  by  freedom  from  sec- 
tarian narrowness  in  charter  provision  and  in  actual 
practice.  It  has  likewise  been  marked  by  a  liberal  cul- 
ture which  has  furnished  and  inspired  its  graduates  for 
manifold  honorable  and  useful  vocations.  It  has  asked 
of  the  graduates  that  they  think  their  own  way  through 
the  problem  of  the  choice  of  a  life  work,  that  they  go 
each  to  serve  with  fidelity  and  devotion  his  day  and 
generation  according  to  the  will  of  God. 

In  the  course  of  the  years  many  have  entered  the 
Christian  ministry,  and  the  roll  of  this  company  of 
Brown  men  is  one  upon  which  we  can  look  with  joy 
and  gratitude.  Some  have  risen  to  high  position  in  lead- 
ership and  have  won  for  themselves  name  and  fame; 
some  have  served  in  places  removed  from  the  public 

i:  50  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

eye  and  have  lived  in  comparative  obscurity.  Of  all  the 
goodly  company  we  can  say  with  full  hearts  that  their 
works  do  follow  them  if  the  life  task  is  done,  and  that 
those  who  are  bearing  the  burden  and  heat  of  this  pres- 
ent day  were  never  more  greatly  needed. 

The  theme  of  the  first  address  is  "The  University 
and  the  Christian  Ministry,"  and  I  have  the  honor  to 
present  as  the  speaker  the  Rt.  Rev.  Frederick  Bur- 
gess, D.D.,  of  the  class  of  1873,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese 
of  Long  Island  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

THE  committee,  who  have  honored  me  by  inviting 
me  to  speak  at  this  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anni- 
versary, have  given  me  a  subject  of  grave  and  national 
importance, ''The  Relation  of  the  University  to  the 
Christian  Ministry."  I  should  wish  to  attach  to  both  these 
terms  the  wide  significance  which  I  have  no  doubt  the 
committee  intended. 

Matthew  Arnold  says  that  Alcibiades  declared  that 
men  went  away  from  the  oratory  of  Pericles  saying  that 
it  was  fine,  it  was  very  good,  and  afterwards  thinking 
no  more  about  it;  but  that  they  went  away  from  hear- 
ing Socrates  talk  with  the  point  of  what  he  said  sticking 
fast  in  their  minds,  and  they  could  not  get  rid  of  it. 
'*  Socrates,"  asks  Arnold, "  has  drunk  his  hemlock  and 
is  dead,  but  in  his  own  breast  does  not  every  man  carry 
about  with  him  a  possible  Socrates.^" 

As  I  speak  to  you  to-day,  on  the  problem  of  reli- 
gious education  in  our  American  colleges  and  univer- 
sities, and  of  the  office  of  the  Christian  ministry,  I  can 
neither  hope  nor  desire  to  rival  the  oratory  of  Pericles, 
but  if  there  is  a  Socrates  within  me,  I  hope  that  he 
will  aid  me  in  aiming  two  arrows,  one  which  shall  stick 

[  51    ] 


Brown  University 

fast  in  the  mind,  and  the  other  which  shall  touch  the 
heart. 

When  we  look  back  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  and 
more,  to  the  beginnings  of  intellectual  life  in  Amer- 
ica, one  fact  stands  out  with  a  clearness  which  cannot 
be  gainsaid.  The  origin  of  all  our  oldest  colleges :  Har- 
vard, William  and  Mary,  Yale,  Princeton,  Columbia, 
Brown,  was  due  to  the  energy,  the  devotion,  and  the 
liberality  of  clergymen.  They  founded  them,  they  ad- 
ministered them,  they  taught  in  them.  Looking  back 
on  those  times,  one  can  see  that  in  the  pre-Revolution- 
ary  days,  and  indeed  for  decades  after,  the  clergymen 
were  the  educators,  the  men  who  had  the  confidence  and 
respect  in  every  community,  and  to  whom  the  young 
minds  were  entrusted.  Whatever  else  we  may  say  or 
think  about  the  ministry  as  an  order,  we  cannot  refuse 
them  this  meed  of  praise.  At  a  time  when  the  country 
needed  them,  they  were  the  men  of  the  hour,  and  they 
built  the  house  on  a  rock  and  not  on  sand,  and  the  rain 
descended  and  the  floods  came  and  the  winds  blew,  but 
their  work  has  remained  as  a  blessing  to  the  nation. 

To-day  we  have  to  acknowledge  that,  in  contrast, 
the  clergy  have  vanished  off  the  educational  field.  It 
boots  not  that  there  are  still  chapel  services,  and  that 
from  time  to  time  men  who  have  made  their  reputa- 
tions in  their  metropolitan  pulpits  are  asked  to  speak; 
yet  the  fact  remains,  as  most  of  these  men  would  ac- 
knowledge, that  while  they  are  treated  with  every 
courtesy,  they  are,  nevertheless,  regarded  as  outsiders, 
not  looked  upon  as  members  of  the  college  family; 
and  there  is,  and  can  be,  no  lasting  influence  in  the 
college  from  such  transitory  visits  and  occasional  ser- 
mons. It  is  the  men  on  the  Faculty  who  have  the  op- 

C   52  3 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

portunity,  and  with  the  exception  of  Roman  Catholic 
colleges  and  a  few  frankly  sectarian  institutions,  the 
Christian  minister  is  conspicuous  on  the  Faculty  only 
by  his  absence. 

Why  is  this  contrast?  It  certainly  is  not  because  the 
clergy  themselves  have  lost  their  interest  in  education; 
whatever  happens,  they  must  teach.  In  spite  of  all  that 
is  said,  religion  can  be  taught,  and  Christianity  must 
be  taught.  St.  Paul  puts  pastors  and  teachers  on  a  par 
in  the  ministry,  and  the  fondest,  tenderest  name,  most 
often  on  the  lips  of  the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ,  was 
"  AtSao-K-aXo9,"  teacher.  In  their  pulpits,  in  their  Sunday- 
schools,  in  their  ministering  of  the  sacraments,  in  their 
pastoral  care,  the  clergy  are  always  teaching,  and  in 
almost  the  only  department  of  education  left  in  their 
control,  the  church  secondary  schools,  there  are  clergy 
who,  as  teachers  pure  and  simple,  are  worthy  descend- 
ants of  Muhlenberg  and  Dr.  Coit. 

The  explanation  of  this  change  in  the  attitude  of  the 
educational  world  towards  the  clergy  would,  in  all  its 
ramifications,  take  us  far  afield.  Suffice  it  to  say  that,  in 
its  last  analysis,  it  lies  in  the  altered  conception  of  the 
mission  of  the  state.  The  state  assumes  no  moral  or  re- 
ligious functions,  according  to  American  ideas;  it  gives 
to  every  form  of  religion  a  right  to  exist,  and  physi- 
cal protection,  but  has  itself  no  more  responsibility.  As 
a  great  writer  has  intimated, "The  state  is  more  like  a 
commercial  company  or  a  huge  municipality  created  for 
the  management  of  certain  business ;  and  that  it  should 
trouble  itself  about  the  opinions  of  its  members,  would 
be  as  unnatural  as  for  a  railway  company  to  inquire 
how  many  of  its  shareholders  were  Methodists  or  total 
abstainers." 

C   53   ] 


Brown  University 

This  principle  has  been  carried  out  into  the  public 
schools,  and  universities  and  colleges  controlled  by  the 
state,  and  through  them  into  all  the  larger  and  older 
institutions.  To  some  of  us,  this  solution  of  the  religious 
educational  problem  does  not  seem  a  solution  at  all. 
It  is  a  cutting,  not  an  unraveling,  of  the  Gordian  knot. 
But  just  because  of  its  apparent  simplicity,  it  has  ap- 
pealed to  the  American  mind,  and  it  is  only  within 
recent  years  that  the  suspicion  has  arisen  in  the  minds 
of  our  people  that  by  this  ignoring  of  religion  and  eth- 
ics in  our  state  educational  system,  we  may  be  wast- 
ing our  spiritual  and  moral  capital  as  a  nation,  just  as  we 
have  ruthlessly  cut  down  our  forests  and  recklessly 
pillaged  our  mines.  This  non-religious  conception  of  the 
state  would  destroy  all  patriotism.  The  patriot  would 
suffer  and  die  for  a  nation  which  he  could  idealize  as  a 
person  with  lofty  faith  and  hopes,  but  no  one  would  die 
for  a  railroad  corporation  or  an  insurance  company. 

So  an  Alma  Mater  who  teaches  neither  religion  nor 
morals  will  get  little  devotion  or  love  from  her  alumni. 
Some  rich  magnate,  for  his  own  glorification,  may  un- 
load his  millions  on  her,  to  make  his  name  great,  but 
we  shall  sing  her  no  hymns,  and  remain  cold  when  she 
is  mentioned. 

From  this  corporation  idea  of  the  university.  Brown 
has  been  saved  by  her  charter.  It  is  an  unique  document, 
and  I  like  to  believe  that  its  spirit  may,  in  part,  have 
been  due  to  the  influence  of  Bishop  Berkeley,  who,  dur- 
ing his  long  residence  at  Newport,  planned  a  College 
of  Rhode  Island.  That  charter,  however,  does  two 
things.  It  secures  forever  the  religious  liberty  of  the 
scholars  at  Brown  and  their  freedom  from  religious 
tests.  At  a  time  when  ecclesiastical  oppression  and  tyr- 

C   54  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

anny  were  still  rife,  and  when  at  Oxford,  for  instance, 
the  great  university  of  England,  matriculation  could 
be  had  only  through  enforced  partaking  of  the  Holy 
Communion,  that  is,  through  sacrilege  on  the  part  of 
many,  the  Brunonian  document  reads  as  follows:  **Into 
this  liberal  and  catholic  Institution  shall  never  be  ad- 
mitted any  religious  tests,  ...  all  the  members  hereof 
shall  forever  enjoy  full  free  absolute  and  uninterrupted 
liberty  of  conscience."  On  the  other  hand,  the  charter 
safeguards  and  perpetuates  the  religious  and  Christian 
character  of  the  college  through  the  personality  of  the 
Trustees  and  Fellows.  These  are  to  be  elected  in  fixed 
proportion  from  four  Christian  bodies:  the  Baptists,  the 
FriendsorQuakers,theCongregationalists,andtheEpis- 
copalians.  It  is  here  that  the  spirit  of  the  charter  finds 
expression.  These  men  when  elected  must  be  whole- 
hearted members  of  their  respective  Christian  societies. 
The  spirit  of  the  charter  is  broken  if  half-hearted, 
lukewarm  Christians  are  chosen,  and  the  whole  pur- 
pose of  the  college  will  be  defeated  if  nominal  members 
of  a  denomination, that  is, men  who  are  living  in  immor- 
ality and  have  no  true  faith,  are  placed  in  authority. 

If,  however,  the  provisions  of  the  charter  are  ob- 
served, it  will  follow  of  necessity  that  the  oifice  of  the 
Christian  ministry  in  the  University  will  be  recognized. 
It  is  no  accident  that  the  presidents  of  Brown  have  al- 
ways been  taken  from  the  Baptist  ministry.  What  great 
men  they  have  been !  American  educational  history  has 
few  more  illustrious  names  than  those  of  Manning, 
Wayland,  Robinson,  Andrews,  and  if  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  add,  Faunce.  They  were  men  of  liberal  cul- 
ture, who  knew  how  to  preserve  what  the  charter 
speaks  of  as  the  "catholic"  character  of  the  college. 

C  &B  ] 


Brown  University 

But  the  Trustees,  while  thus  obeying  the  highest 
dictates  of  the  charter  in  the  election  of  the  presidents, 
have,  on  the  other  hand,  yielded  to  the  spirit  of  the 
age  in  the  appointment  of  the  Faculty.  It  is  a  significant 
fact,  that  of  the  hundred  or  more  professors  and  tutors 
at  Brown,  with  the  exception  of  our  honored  President, 
no  one  is  a  Christian  minister.  Such  a  state  of  affairs 
would  have  been  inconceivable  to  the  men  who  wrote 
the  charter.  That  philosophy  and  history  and  many  an- 
other subject  would  be  taught  by  the  clergy  was  some- 
thing that  would  necessarily  follow  from  the  character 
of  the  electoral  board  of  officers.  It  needed  no  pro- 
vision ;  what  they  did  provide  against  was  the  intro- 
duction of  what  they  called  "sectarian  differences  of 
opinion"  into  the  courses,  although  all  religious  con- 
troversies were  to  be  studied  freely.  It  is,  therefore, 
with  the  charter  on  my  side,  that  I  make  my  point  and 
plead  for  a  larger  recognition  of  the  work  of  the  Chris- 
tian ministry,  and  for  the  proportionate  representation 
of  the  order  on  the  teaching  staff  of  the  college. 

If  this  were  a  debate,  I  know  well  the  answer  that 
would  be  made  by  the  authorities.  "  You  are  quite  mis- 
taken," they  would  say, "in  supposing  that  there  is  any 
bias  against  the  clergy  in  the  educational  world.  We 
would  gladly  admit  them  to  the  order  of  teachers.  But 
these  are  days  of  specialization,  and  we  rarely,  if  ever, 
find  ministers  who  are  in  any  way  fitted  by  their  know- 
ledge of  the  science  of  modern  pedagogics  and  by  any 
special  Hne  of  study."  Let  me  say,  then,  that  I  am  no 
reactionary.  The  modern  university  is  the  legitimate 
development  of  our  modern  age.  Beautiful  as  we  can 
picture  that  college  in  Warren  to  have  been,  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago,  with  its  twenty-three  students, 

C   56  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University- 
eight  of  whom  were  studying  for  the  ministry,  and 
with  its  courses  consisting  only  of  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Mathematics,  yet  it  would  be  powerless  in  its  influence 
on  the  nation  to-day.  A  wealthy  citizen  has,  I  under- 
stand, bought  and  restored  Fort  Ticonderoga,  a  very 
interesting  antiquarian  accomplishment.  But  as  soon 
would  you  expect  that  picturesque  fortress,  with  its 
moat  and  its  ramparts,  with  its  simple  guns  and  cannon- 
balls,  to  withstand  a  modern  army,  as  that  college  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  to  meet  the  needs  of  the 
time  and  to  overcome  the  enemy  of  ignorance  to-day. 
That  is  all  true.  It  is  also  true  that  there  are  some 
men  in  the  ministry  who  have  this  special  training,  who 
are  ready  to  teach,  but  who,  unless  they  renounced 
their  ministry,  would  not  be  welcome  to  the  teaching 
force  of  any  of  our  public  institutions.  And  it  is  also 
true  that  many  and  many  a  young  man  in  the  ministry 
would  gladly  devote  the  years  of  preparation,  if  only  he 
could  feel  that  throughout  the  various  branches  of  mod- 
ern teaching  his  acquirements  would  be  recognized, 
and  his  services  be  somewhere  received.  The  Univer- 
sity needs  such  service.  The  men  of  my  time,  I  fancy, 
recall  with  gratitude  those  two  great  men,  J.  Lewis 
Diman  and  Ezekiel  Robinson,  both  Christian  ministers, 
and  we  cannot  forget  the  way  in  which  the  one,  in  his 
history  courses,  brought  out  the  influence  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  upon  European  civilization,  and  the  other 
showed  that  the  truest  philosophy  is, in  its  heart, consis- 
tent with  the  deepest  Christian  faith.  College  life  meant 
more  to  us  because  those  two  men  were  on  the  Faculty. 
I  would  not,  for  a  moment,  decry  the  work  which  is 
done  by  the  laymen,  in  such  organizations  as  the  Bishop 
Seabury  Society,  the  Brotherhood  of  St.  Andrew,  or  the 

I  51  ] 


Brown  University 

Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  but  the  college 
needs  something  more,  something  which  the  Christian 
ministry,  and  the  Christian  ministry  alone,  can  impart. 

The  restoration,  then,  of  the  clergy  to  their  original 
influence  in  our  universities  in  America  would  be  an 
act  of  highest  usefulness  to  the  state.  And  if  Brown 
leads  the  way,  it  will  be  fulfilling  the  dictates  of  its 
charter,  not  with  the  letter  which  killeth,  but  with  the 
spirit  which  giveth  life.  Brown  University  was  founded 
when  the  British  colonies  were  on  the  eve  of  revolu- 
tion, and  it  was  with  the  purpose  of  training  the  youths 
as  loyal  citizens  of  the  state  that  these  men,  with  dif- 
fering religious  views,  but  with  one  common  Chris- 
tianity, gathered  themselves  together  and  framed  the 
new  college,  because  they  believed  it  would  be,  to  use 
their  own  language, "  for  the  general  advantage  and 
honor  of  the  Government." 

So  while  we  are  here  celebrating  this  one  hundred 
and  fiftieth  anniversary,  the  country  stands  at  the  open- 
ing of  a  new  era.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
the  European  War,  no  matter  who  triumphs,  has  in 
it  a  crisis  for  America,  almost  as  great  as  for  any  of 
the  nations  involved.  Forever  gone  are  the  days  when 
Washington  in  his  Farewell  Address  could  warn  his 
country  against  entangling  alliances.  Forever  gone, too, 
are  these  later  and  recent  days  when  our  educated  men 
could  stay  away,  with  aristocratic  disdain,  from  the  polls, 
or  treat  with  good  humored  shrugs  each  new  tale  of 
municipal  or  state  corruption.  Forever  gone,  also,  are 
the  days  when  the  success  of  enormous  wealth  could  be 
the  ideal  of  our  young  men,  or  when  the  exigencies  of 
business  could  be  a  legitimate  excuse  from  the  duty 
of  civic  responsibility  and  military  service. 

C   58   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

We  talk  about  the  new  freedom  and  the  new  de- 
mocracy, but  what  we  need  most  is  a  new  patriotism. 
Our  citizens  must  prate  less  about  hberty  and  rights, 
and  speak  in  graver  tones  and  with  clearer  emphasis 
of  their  national  duties.  The  United  States  of  America 
must  take  her  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world 
as  never  before.  The  Atlantic  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
Pacific  on  the  other,  are  no  longer  barriers  to  either 
intercourse  or  attack,  and  the  nation  can  meet  its  re- 
sponsibilities only  when  it  has  citizens  worthy  of  its 
greatness  and  ready  to  exalt  its  name.  The  object  of 
the  university  is,  first  and  foremost,  to  breed  such  citi- 
zens, men  who  can  act  as  architects  of  the  future,  and 
who,  by  their  nobility  of  character,  can  be  "for  the 
advantage  and  honor  of  the  Government." 

Is  the  Christian  ministry  to  have  its  part  in  this  ser- 
vice .f*  This  is  the  question  that  confronts  the  American 
university  to-day.  If  that  question  is  answered  in  the 
negative,  not  only  is  injustice  done  to  a  highly  educated 
and  influential  class  in  the  community,  but  the  univer- 
sity itself  is  deprived  of  the  assistance  of  men  who,  by 
their  enthusiasm  and  faith,  are  well  equipped  for  the 
task. 

The  dread  of  controversy  is  unnecessary.  "  Better," 
says  Shakespeare,  in  one  of  those  sentences  which 
light  up  the  philosophy  of  the  home, — "  Better  a  little 
chiding  than  a  great  deal  of  heart-break."  So  I  would 
say,  better  a  little  controversy  than  a  great  deal  of 
indifference.  It  is  the  neglect  of  Christianity,  not  the 
thought  or  even  contention  about  Christianity,  that 
does  the  most  harm.  We  are  not  afraid  of  controversy 
in  any  of  the  other  branches  of  study,  in  science,  or 
philosophy,  or  history,  or  even  politics,  surely  we  need 

[   59   ] 


Brown  University 

not  fear  it  in  religion.  At  least  so  thought  those  men 
of  1764  when  they  penned  the  charter,  for  they  said, 
"All  religious  controversies  may  be  studied  freely." 
Perhaps  they  knew  that  the  cause  of  education,  even 
more  than  the  cause  of  missions,  would  bring  Christians 
nearer  together,  and  turn  controversy  into  a  sincere 
and  generous  inquiry  for  the  truth. 

To  sum  it  all  up  in  one  final  sentence :  The  relation 
of  the  university  to  the  Christian  ministry  must  be  that 
of  confidence  in  the  men  whose  official  ancestors  were 
the  college  founders ;  who  care  a  great  deal  about  the 
soundness  of  the  mind  and  of  the  body,  but  who  care 
far  more  about  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  heart ;  who  will, 
if  they  are  permitted,  lead  the  way  to  heights  of  view 
not  attainable  through  merely  intellectual  training ;  and 
without  whose  assistance  the  American  university  can 
never  fulfil  its  highest  mission  of  producing  sons  with 
the  vision  of  God  in  their  hearts. 

The  Presiding  Officer  then  said: 

The  world  has  become  a  neighborhood.  No  longer  is 
it  possible  for  a  nation  to  live  in  isolation.  Bonds,  visi- 
ble and  invisible,  equally  real,  unite  us  to  peoples  far 
beyond  our  coasts.  Horizons  widen  with  the  passing 
years.  The  interchange  of  peoples  makes  ours  a  com- 
posite and  cosmopolitan  nation  and  carries  our  life  and 
language  into  every  continent. 

The  enterprise  of  Christian  Missions  needs  no  de- 
fense at  our  hands.  Its  right  to  be  and  its  beneficent 
achievement  are  no  longer  in  wide  debate. 

There  are  those  who  saw  this  day  from  afar,  and  who 
hearkened  to  the  call  for  service  which  it  contained  for 

1 60  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

them.  The  number  of  men  whom  Brown  has  sent  into 
this  great  and  fertile  field  of  endeavor  is  not  imposing, 
but  the  University  has  not  been  unmindful  of  the  obliga- 
tion to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  contribution  of  Brown 
to  this  world-wide  enterprise  includes  the  names  of  not 
a  few  who  are  ranked  among  the  missionary  states- 
men of  the  century  past.  At  the  head  stands  the  pioneer 
of  them  all,Adoniram  Judson,;2o//z^n  mir  a  bile.  Francis 
Wayland  himself  gave  mighty  impulse  to  the  cause  by 
his  powerful  personality  and  weighty  message. 

The  theme  of  the  next  address  is  "The  University 
and  Christian  Missions,"  and  the  speaker  is  one  whom 
I  present  with  peculiar  pleasure,the  Rev.  George  Edwin 
Horr,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  class  of  1876,  President  of 
the  Newton  Theological  Institution. 

BROWN  University  is  the  child  of  the  colonial 
Baptist  Churches.  The  Philadelphia  Association, 
from  which  proceeded  the  influences  that  did  so  much 
to  evangelize  the  South,  soon  became  interested  in  the 
work  of  education.  In  1756  the  Association  founded  at 
Hopewell,  New  Jersey,  an  academy  "  for  the  education 
of  youth  for  the  ministry."  The  success  of  this  acad- 
emy inspired  the  friends  of  learning  with  confidence  to 
attempt  larger  things. 

"  Many  of  the  churches,"  says  a  contemporary, 
"being  supplied  with  able  pastors  from  Mr.  Eaton's 
academy,  and  being  thus  convinced,  from  experience, 
of  the  great  usefulness  of  human  literature  to  more 
thoroughly  furnish  the  man  of  God  for  the  most  im- 
portant work  of  the  Gospel  ministry,  the  hands  of  the 
Philadelphia  Association  were  strengthened,  and  their 
hearts  were  encouraged  to  extend  their  designs  of 

[61    n 


Brown  University 

promoting  literature  in  the  Society  [^denomination]  by 
erecting,  on  some  suitable  part  of  this  continent,  a  col- 
lege, or  university,  which  should  be  principally  under 
the  direction  and  government  of  the  Baptists." 

It  is  a  familiar  story  that  from  this  seed  grew  the 
present  college  whose  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  birth- 
day we  are  now  celebrating. 

The  impulse  that  brought  most  of  our  early  colleges 
to  birth  was  primarily  religious.  The  spirit  of  the  found- 
ers of  Harvard  is  beautifully  expressed  in  the  words  of 
a  contemporary  letter  which  are  carved  on  the  college 
gates : 

"After  God  had  carried  us  safe  to  New  England, 
and  we  had  builded  our  houses,  provided  necessaries 
for  our  livelihood,  rear'd  convenient  places  for  God's 
worship,  and  settled  the  Civill  Government;  One  of  the 
next  things  we  longed  for  and  looked  after  was  to  ad- 
vance Learning, and  perpetuate  it  to  Posterity,  dreading 
to  leave  an  illiterate  Ministry  to  the  churches,  when 
our  present  Ministers  shall  lie  in  the  dust." 

The  devotion  and  the  vision  that  founded  Harvard 
in  1638  founded  Brown  one  hundred  and  twenty-six 
years  later,  in  1764.  The  clear  intention,  however,  of 
the  founders  of  the  five  denominational  colleges  that 
antedate  Brown  University  was  to  raise  up  an  edu- 
cated ministry.  Most  of  them,  in  addition  to  the  disci- 
pline of  the  arts  courses,  gave  distinctively  theological 
instruction.  At  Yale,  Harvard,  and  Princeton  this  fea- 
ture of  the  college  work  was  so  strongly  emphasized 
that  ultimately  each  college  became  identified  with  a 
peculiar  type  of  theology.  In  a  real  sense,  the  theolo- 
gical work  at  Yale  and  Harvard  was  the  nucleus  of  the 
college  course,  and  though  at  Princeton  the  theologi- 

C  62  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

cal  school  was  organically  separate  from  the  college, 
the  school  and  the  college  were  intimately  associated. 
These  colleges,  and  those  like  them,  exerted  a  strong 
direct  influence  upon  the  training  of  ministers  and  mis- 
sionaries. 

At  Brown  University  this  influence  was  indirect,  and 
that  for  two  reasons.  The  charter  explicitly  provided 
that  "the  sectarian  differences  of  opinions  shall  not 
make  any  part  of  the  public  and  classical  instruction." 
This  effectually  shut  out  instruction  such  as  was  com- 
mon at  the  time  at  Harvard  and  Yale,  and  prevented 
the  establishment  of  chairs  that  might  undertake,  even 
in  part,  the  distinctive  work  of  a  theological  seminary. 
The  founders  appear  to  have  taken  elaborate  pains 
that  Brown  should  not  have  a  Baptist  divinity  school  as 
both  Yale  and  Harvard  were  coming  to  have  Congre- 
gational divinity  schools. 

Another  provision  of  the  charter  worked  in  the  same 
direction.  The  self-perpetuating  governing  boards  of 
other  colleges  naturally  took  good  care  that  only  their 
co-religionists  should  be  elected  to  vacancies.  Thus  it 
came  about  that,  without  charter  provisions,  these  boards 
were  composed  exclusively  of  representatives  of  the 
denomination  that  founded  the  college.  In  these  cir- 
cumstances there  was  not  the  slightest  difficulty  in 
coloring  the  instruction,  and  in  making  the  college  in- 
fluence felt  directly  in  the  denominational  life.  A  very 
different  state  of  things  prevailed  at  Brown.  The  char- 
ter divided  the  government  of  the  college  among  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Baptists,  the  Friends,  the  Congrega- 
tionaHsts,and  the  Episcopalians.  Under  these  conditions 
the  establishment  of  a  Baptist  divinity  school  at  Brown, 
to  match  the  Congregational  divinity  schools  at  Yale 

C   63   ] 


Brown  University 

and  at  Harvard, was  plainly  impossible.  By  the  terms  of 
the  organizing  principle  of  Brown,  the  college  was  kept 
out  of  the  field  of  distinctively  religious  instruction. 

It  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  the  evolution  of  institu- 
tions that  colleges  which  remain  firmly  attached  to  cer- 
tain denominations  through  prescription  and  the  self- 
perpetuating  power  of  their  governing  boards,  should 
be  characterized  as  unsectarian,  while  a  college  that 
makes  specific  provision  for  the  inclusion  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  four  religious  bodies  should  sometimes 
have  been  characterized  as  narrowly  denominational. 

If,  therefore,  the  influence  of  Brown  University  upon 
the  great  work  of  missions  is  not  so  palpable  and  direct 
as  we  might  have  anticipated,  we  can  see  a  reason  for 
it,  and  a  reason  that  colors  the  w^hole  religious  history 
of  the  college.  Brown  University  was  not  an  arm  of  the 
Baptist  denomination ;  it  was  the  gift  of  the  denomina- 
tion to  the  cause  of  education  and  not  to  itself. 

Another  factor  should  enter  into  the  consideration  of 
this  matter.  The  modern  missionary  movement,  espe- 
cially among  the  English  Evangelical  party  in  the 
Church  of  England  and  English  Congregationalists, 
in  considering  the  missionary's  equipment,  placed  the 
primary  emphasis  upon  the  candidate's  natural  parts, 
his  zeal  and  piety.  The  early  appointees  of  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society  were  almost  wholly  uneducated 
artisans.  It  cannot  fairly  be  said  that  American  Bap- 
tists generally  approved  this  policy,  but  large  numbers 
of  them  took  an  intermediate  position.  They  felt  that 
Brown  University  stood  for  a  more  distinctively  secu- 
lar type  of  education  than  was  desirable.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  missionaries  of  the  American  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Union  for  the  most  part  did  not  enjoy  a  thor- 

C   64   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

ough  education  until  the  Newton  Theological  Institu- 
tion was  established  in  1825,  which,  in  connection  with 
Brown,  became,  as  Professor  Brastow,  of  Yale,  notes 
in  his  work,  **The  Modern  Pulpit, "the  principal  factor 
in  raising  the  educational  standard  of  the  American 
Baptist  ministry. 

But  even  after  this  cooperation  had  become  efficient, 
there  was  an  important  section  of  the  Baptists,  repre- 
sented by  the  founders  of  Columbian  University,  who 
believed  that  a  different  form  of  education  than  the 
classical  and  mathematical  was  most  useful  for  min- 
isters and  missionaries.  We  can  now  see  that  there  was 
a  measure  of  truth  in  their  contention,  and  Brown  has 
been  prominent  in  recognizing  it,  and  that  in  the  most 
cogent  way,  by  broadening  her  curriculum  to  adapt  her 
privileges  to  many  different  needs. 

I  have  dwelt  on  these  factors  at  some  length  in  order 
that  we  may  have  before  our  minds  more  clearly  the 
reasons  that  prevented  the  influence  of  Brown  upon 
missions  from  being  more  direct. 

But  the  indirect  influence  of  the  college  was  most 
important.  It  did  not  teach  Baptist  doctrines;  it  did  not 
teach  any  form  of  denominational  religion ;  it  is  only 
fair  to  say  that  at  some  periods  it  did  not  fulfil  its  privi- 
lege as  a  religious  force,  but  it  stood  throughout  the 
years  for  scholarship,  for  clear  ideas  and  exact  expres- 
sion, and  when  men  of  parts,  who  had  profited  by  this 
training,  became  ministers  and  missionaries,  they  be- 
came at  once  by  the  specific  gravity  of  souls,  men  of 
weight  and  leadership. 

We  have  a  salient  illustration  of  this  influence  of  the 
college  in  its  incomparable  gift  to  the  cause  of  foreign 
missions  in  the  life  of  Adoniram  Judson,of  the  class  of 

[  fi5  ] 


Brown  University 

1 807.  When  Judson  graduated  from  college,  he  did  not 
call  himself  a  Christian.  He  had  been  caught  in  that 
wave  of  skepticism  that  swept  over  the  country  in  his  col- 
lege days,  and  was  finally  stayed  by  the  teaching  and  in- 
fluence of  President  Dwight,  of  Yale.  Even  when  Jud- 
son entered  AndoverTheological  Seminary,  in  1 808,  he 
was  neither  a  professor  of  religion  nor  a  candidate  for 
the  ministry.  He  was  admitted  to  the  seminary  only  by 
special  favor.  But  on  the  second  of  December,  1808, 
he  made  a  solemn  dedication  of  himself  to  God,  and  on 
the  twenty-eighth  of  May,  1 809,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  he  joined  the  Third  Congregational  Church  in 
Plymouth.  His  conversion  involved  in  itself  a  conse- 
cration to  the  Christian  ministry. 

The  "round  peg  in  the  square  hole  "theory  contains 
only  a  fraction  of  truth,  and  Dr.  Johnson's  definition 
of  genius  as  "great  powers  accidentally  determined" 
is  equally  open  to  criticism ;  but,  in  general,  a  man 
who  attains  eminence  in  any  one  department  of  human 
activity  would  have  been  equally  successful  in  sev- 
eral others.  Adoniram  Judson  was  a  man  who  would 
have  been  great  in  any  calling  which  had  enlisted  his 
powers.  He  had  the  qualities  that  command  success  as 
a  merchant,  a  statesman,  or  a  general.  In  any  of  the 
professions  he  would  have  won  great  distinction.  And 
his  devotion,  persistence,  and  good  sense  mark  him  as 
one  of  the  rarest  of  men. 

The  achievements  of  Judson  in  the  realms  of  pure 
scholarship  are  of  the  first  order.  His  translation  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  into  Burmese,  and  his  Burmese  gram- 
mar and  lexicon,  have  received  universal  recognition. 
His  translation  of  the  Bible  ranks  with  the  best  made 
into  any  language.  His  mastery  of  the  Greek  he  learned 

C  66   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

in  this  college,  and  of  the  Hebrew  he  acquired  at  An- 
dover,  is  evident  on  every  page.  Luther  is  said  to  have 
exclaimed  many  times  in  the  course  of  his  translation 
of  the  Old  Testament:  "How  hard  it  is  to  make  the 
prophets  talk  German!"  But  Luther  had  many  help- 
ers. Judson  worked  almost  alone.  There  is  no  paral- 
lel to  Judson 's  achievement  until  we  go  back  to  John 
Wyclif.  Judson  made  the  prophets  talk  Burmese.  The 
training  that  made  these  great  powers  effective  he 
gained  in  this  college,  and  this  college  in  this  year 
which  commemorates  the  one  hundredth  anniversary 
of  his  work  in  Burma  does  well  to  honor  with  signal 
tributes  her  illustrious  son. 

During  the  last  few  months  a  great  Christian  com- 
munity in  Burma  has  been  celebrating  the  centenary 
of  the  day  when  America  gave  Burma  the  Gospel.  In 
the  heart  of  Buddhism  there  has  been  built  up  a  strong 
and  self-supporting  group  of  Christian  churches.  At  our 
celebration  this  week  we  rejoice  to  trace  the  influence 
of  this  college  in  many  lines  of  activity  and  through- 
out broad  spaces,  but  I  hazard  nothing  in  saying  that, 
without  disparaging  the  work  of  others,  but  giving  them 
the  amplest  recognition,  no  graduate  of  this  college  has 
brought  to  it  a  finer  lustre  of  splendid  achievement  than 
Judson,  of  the  class  of  1807.  And  speaking  as  chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  the  Burmese  Centenary,  nom- 
inated by  the  churches  of  Burma  and  elected  by  the 
American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society,  I  beg  you  to 
receive  this  day  from  my  lips  the  greeting  of  one  thou- 
sand churches  and  seventy  thousand  Burmese  Chris- 
tians, and  the  testimony  of  their  lively  appreciation 
of  the  incomparable  gift  of  this  college  to  that  far-off 
land. 

C   67   ] 


Brown  University 

We  should  always  associate  with  the  name  of  Jud- 
son  that  of  a  man  w^ho  did  not  go  to  the  foreign  mis- 
sion field,  but  who,  remaining  at  home,  did  more  than 
any  other  pastor  to  propagate  among  our  churches  the 
spirit  of  missionary  interest,  devotion,  and  sacrifice.  I 
refer,  of  course,  to  Lucius  Bolles,  of  the  class  of  1 801 , 
Trustee  and  Fellow  of  Brown  University,  and  for 
twenty-one  years  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Salem,  Massachusetts.  In  1812  he  founded  the  "Salem 
Bible  Translation  and  Missionary  Society,"  the  first 
definite  organization  in  a  local  church  for  foreign  mis- 
sions in  all  the  world.  As  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
American  Baptist  General  Convention  and  Missionary 
Union,  which  was  organized  in  1814,  Dr.  Bolles  for  six- 
teen years  from  1826  was  the  centre  of  the  missionary 
administration  of  the  American  churches.  Though  this 
was  a  period  of  great  enthusiasm,  it  w^as  also  a  period  in 
which  divergent  policies  came  to  the  front,  and  delicate 
and  far-reaching  questions  arose  for  answer.  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  fortunate  than  that  the  work 
which  Judson  was  doing  abroad  should  have  been  ad- 
ministered at  home  by  a  man  so  sagacious  and  well 
balanced  and  so  thoroughly  sympathetic  with  Judson 's 
ideals  as  Bolles. 

In  the  Triennial  Convention,  as  the  first  organiza- 
tion of  Baptists  for  foreign  missionary  work  was  called, 
there  were  twenty-six  ministers  and  seven  laymen. 
Three  of  these  ministers,  namely,  Lucius  Bolles,  Bur- 
gess Allison,  and  William  Rogers,  were  graduates  of 
Brown.  Rogers  was  a  member  of  the  first  graduating 
class  at  Rhode  Island  College.  Rutgers,  Princeton ,  Wil- 
liams, and  Yale  were  each  represented  by  one  graduate. 
And  among  the  Brown  graduates  who  have  served  as 

[   68   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

presidents  or  secretaries  of  the  foreign  board  are  How- 
ard Malcom,  Barnas  Sears,  Isaac  Davis,  Horatio  Gates 
Jones,  William  T.  Brantly,  Solomon  Peck,  Jonah  G. 
Warren,  John  N.  Murdock,  Sylvanus  D.  Phelps,  Eze- 
kiel  G.  Robinson,  William  W.  Keen,  Stephen  Greene, 
Henry  Kirke  Porter,  Edward  Judson,  Samuel  W.  Dun- 
can, and  Thomas  S.  Barbour.  These  men  were  not  orna- 
mental officials ;  they  threw  themselves  into  the  great 
enterprise.  While  the  man  whose  common  sense,  gen- 
uine piety,  and  large  outlook  won  the  confidence  of  all 
the  churches  was  the  great  president  of  Brown,  Francis 
Wayland. 

But  Judson  was  by  no  means  alone  as  a  representa- 
tive of  this  college  in  the  arduous  and  sometimes  peril- 
ous work  on  the  foreign  field.  Two  theories  as  to  for- 
eign missions  have  divided  all  missionary  boards, — 
the  evangelistic  and  the  educational.  Few  intelligent 
persons  who  have  studied  the  evolution  of  modern  mis- 
sions hold  that  the  two  views  are  mutually  exclusive ; 
they  see  clearly  that  they  are  supplementary ;  that  each 
sort  of  work  strengthens  the  other.  Still,  the  constantly 
recurring  question  in  missionary  administration  is  what 
type  of  effort  should  receive  the  stronger  emphasis. 
On  the  whole,  the  Baptist  churches  of  the  United  States 
have  been  inclined  to  regard  direct  evangelism  as  the 
missionary's  principal  task,  but  it  is  natural  that  col- 
lege men  should  seek  to  redress  the  balance  of  an  over- 
emphasis in  this  direction  and  encourage  the  educa- 
tional aspects  of  missions. 

As  a  matter  of  fact.  Brown  University  made  its  dis- 
tinctive contribution  to  missions  in  educational  direc- 
tions. Of  the  first  seven  Brown  graduates  to  become 
foreign  missionaries,  five  became  eminent  as  transla- 

[   69   ] 


Brown  University 

tors.  Edward  Abiel  Stevens,  '33,  Newton,  '36,  collabo- 
rated with  Judson  and  completed  his  work  on  the  Bur- 
mese translation  and  the  lexicon,  and  revised  the  whole. 
He  also  made  the  Siamese  and  the  Peguan  versions. 
Lyman  Jewett,  '43,  Newton,  '46,  translated  the  Scrip- 
tures intoTelegu.  Josiah  Ripley  Goddard, '62,  Newton, 
'67,  made  the  translation  into  the  Ningpo  colloquial  of 
China;  and  John  Taylor  Jones,  '23,  made  a  Siamese 
version. 

Among  our  leaders  in  school  work  we  mention 
William  Ashmore,  '70,  President  of  Ashmore  Theo- 
logical Seminary, Swatow,  China;  Albert  Arnold  Ben- 
nett, '72,  President  of  the  Theological  Seminary  at 
Yokohama;  Josiah  Nelson  Cushing,  '62,  President  of 
the  Rangoon  Baptist  College  and  original  translator  of 
the  Scriptures  into  Shan;  David  Downie, '69, organizer 
and  leader  of  educational  work  at  Nellore,  India;  Rob- 
ert Henry  Ferguson,  '84,  physician  and  teacher;  Wil- 
bur Brown  Parshley ,  '86,  President  of  the  Japan  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary, Yokohama;  Jared  Harvey  Ran- 
dall, '97,  Professor  in  the  Rangoon  Baptist  College; 
WiUis  Frye  Thomas,  '77,  Professor  in  the  American 
Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Insein,  Burma,  trans- 
lator and  re  visor  of  the  Burmese  and  Karen  versions ; 
Joseph  Taylor, '98,  Principal  of  the  Union  Interdenomi- 
national College  at  Shengtu,West  China;  the  Stevenses 
— father  and  son — Edw^ard  Abiel,  '33,  and  Edward 
Oliver,  '61 ,  who  have  left  such  a  deep  impress  upon 
the  educational  work  at  Rangoon  and  Insein;  Sumner 
Redway  Vinton,  '96,  who  succeeded  his  grandfather, 
Justus  H.,  and  his  father,  Justus  B.,  in  the  Rangoon 
Mission,  of  which  this  family  are  regarded  as  the  pa- 
tron saints;  Joseph  Chandler  Robbins, '97,  who  after 

[  70 : 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

a  useftil  service  in  the  Philippines  has  become  college 
secretary  of  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement. 

It  is  noteworthy  how  sons  and  grandsons  of  Brown 
graduates  have  perpetuated  on  single  fields  the  influ- 
ence of  this  college.  Recall  Benjamin  C.  Thomas,  '46, 
at  Burma,  and  his  son,  Willis  Frye,  '77,  at  Insein; 
Edward  A.  Stevens,  his  son,  Edward  O. ,  and  his  grand- 
son, Sumner  R.,  at  Rangoon,  and  the  Vintons  among 
the  Karens. 

Brown  University  has  contributed  to  foreign  mis- 
sions, besides  those  I  have  already  mentioned:  Josiah 
Goddard, '35;  Horace  Thomas  Love, '36;  Durlin  Lee 
Brayton,  '37;  William  Crowell, '38 ;  Albert  Nicholas 
Arnold, '38;  Erasmus  Norcross  Jencks, '46;  Charles 
Hibbard, '50;  Alfred  Brown  Satterlee, '52 ;  Edward 
Winter  Clark, '57;  Isaac  Davis  Colburn, '59;  Edwin 
Bullard,  '67 ;  Sabin  Tillotson  Goodell,  '68  ;  James  Hope 
Arthur, '70  ;  Charles  Harvey  Finch, '77 ;  Truman  John- 
son, '79;  Sidney  White  Rivenburg,  '80;  Charles  Ed- 
win Burdette, '80;  Samuel  Willis  Hamblin,'86;  Charles 
Grant  Hartsock, '89;  Charles  Fisk  MacKenzie, '90 ; 
Jesse  Fowler  Smith, '96;  John  Howard  Deming,  '97; 
Stacy  Reuben  Warburton,  '98 ;  Walter  Boardman  Bul- 
len,'99;  Andrew  Little  Eraser, '02 ;  Joseph  Francis 
Russell, '02 ;  Harry  Clifford  Leach, '02 ;  Percival  Rogers 
Bakeman,'o3;  Robert  Bell  Longwell/03;  Merrick 
Lyon  Streeter,  '07  ;  John  Addison  Foote,  '09;  Brayton 
Clarke  Case,  '10 ;  George  Glass  Davitt,  '11;  Herbert 
Collins  Long, '12;  Daniel  Harrison  Kulp,'i3. 

As  I  have  suggested,  the  list  of  Brown  graduates  who 
have  engaged  in  this  work  is  not  large.  Six  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  eleven  men  have  graduated  from 
Brown  during  the  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  its 

[  71  ] 


Brown  University 

existence.  The  records  of  the  Baptist  Foreign  Mission 
Society  show  that  fifty-two  have  worked  under  its  care, 
and  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  not  more  than  twenty 
are  recorded  as  working  under  other  boards,  but  the 
influence  of  these  men  upon  the  world  has  been  out  of 
all  proportion  to  their  numbers.  They  have  moulded 
not  only  groups  but  whole  civilizations.  It  was  given  to 
men  like  Judson  in  Burma,  Jewett  and  Day  in  South 
India,  and  Arthur  in  Japan  to  be  among  the  very  first  on 
these  fields,  and  to  set  the  type  of  all  subsequent  effort; 
and  Brown  men  have  been  among  the  foremost  in  dis- 
seminating truly  liberal  ideas  in  missionary  work. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  men  whom  Brown  has 
educated  who  have  thrown  their  influence  in  favor  of 
every  effort  to  bring  the  world  to  Christ?  To  mention 
a  single  name,  who  shall  set  bounds  to  the  influence  of 
Edwards  Amasa  Park,  of  the  class  of  1826,  the  eminent 
professor  at  Andover,  which  sent  out  such  a  splendid 
company  of  missionaries,  or  of  the  group  of  professors 
at  Newton,  most  of  them  graduates  of  Brown  ^  Newton 
itself  has  sent  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  mission- 
aries to  the  foreign  field.  Verily  the  lines  of  Brown  have 
gone  out  into  all  the  earth  and  her  words  to  the  end 
of  the  world. 

At  half  after  twelve  o'clock  noon,  the  first  organ  re- 
cital was  given  in  Sayles  Hall  by  the  University  organ- 
ist, Gene  Wilder  Ware,  with  the  following  programme: 
"Praeludium  Festivum  in  G  minor,"  by  Becker;  "An- 
dante Cantabile  in  B  flat,"  by  Tschaikowsky ; "  Sous  les 
Bois,"  by  Durand  ;  "  Sunrise,"  by  Demarest;  "Chant 
Negre,"  by  Kramer;  "Scherzo  Symphonique,"  by 
Faulke. 

c  72  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

Similar  recitals  were  given  by  Mr.  Ware  at  the  same 
hour  on  the  three  remaining  days  of  the  festival. 

At  half  after  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Religious 
History  of  the  University  was  further  commemorated. 
The  Presiding  Officer  was  the  Rev. Thomas  D.  An- 
derson, D.D.,  of  the  class  of  1874,  who  spoke  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  fact  that  this  session  with  its  special  topic  is  inserted 
in  the  programme  of  our  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anni- 
versary is  evidence  that  Brown  University  believes  that 
man  is  a  religious  being,  and  comes  to  his  fullest  reali- 
zation only  after  a  process  of  religious  education.  The 
history  of  civilization  bears  testimony  to  the  presence 
and  powerof  religion.  The  history  of  religion  proves  the 
need  and  value  of  education.  In  its  early  stages  religion 
is  obscured  and  vitiated  by  ignorance,  superstition,  glut- 
tony, lust,  and  cruelty.  We  see  it  toying  with  magic,  and 
deem  it  unworthy  of  the  devotion  of  reasonable  men. 
But  natural  science,  too,  in  its  childhood,  found  delight 
in  the  pranks  of  magic.  Yet  natural  science  through  ob- 
servation, investigation,  and  multiplied  experiments,  in 
a  word,  through  a  process  of  education,  has  become 
an  important  factor  in  the  progress  of  civilization.  So 
religion  by  a  similar  process  has  become  a  most  potent 
factor  in  individual  and  social  welfare. 

We  admit  and  emphasize  the  truth  that  religion  is 
primarily  experience,  but  the  religious  man  needs  edu- 
cation in  order  to  interpret  truly  the  phenomena  of  his 
experience.  Religion  recognizes  a  superior  being  and  is 
conscious  of  an  impulse  to  come  into  harmony  with  such 
a  being.  But  it  is  not  enough  for  the  religious  man  to 
have  a  God.  The  challenge  comes  as  it  came  to  Moses 

C  73  ] 


Brown  University 

from  the  Israelites.  What  is  his  name?  What  kind  of 
a  God  is  he?  What  is  his  character?  What  makes  him 
worthy  of  my  homage  and  obedient  service  ?  It  is  by  a 
process  of  education — a  process  of  observation,  investi- 
gation, inference,  and,  above  all, experiment  ( including 
what  religion  calls  experience)  — that  we  gain  know- 
ledge of  a  God  worthy  of  our  highest  reverence  and 
noblest  service.  And  it  is  by  such  a  process,  too,  that  we 
discover  the  method  by  which  we  may  come  into  har- 
monious relation  with  Him,  and  thus  adjust  ourselves 
to  eternal  reality. 

The  teacher  of  religion  cannot  create  life  any  more 
than  the  teacher  of  medicine,  but,  after  the  manner  of 
the  teacher  of  medicine,  he  may  discover  the  laws  of 
life,  and  the  conditions  of  its  fertility  and  effectiveness, 
and  point  the  way  to  life  more  abundant.  Religious  ex- 
perience quickens  life  by  the  inspiration  of  a  generous 
motive.  Religious  education  helps  that  life  to  greater 
effectiveness  by  the  discovery  of  a  proper  method. 

There  is  a  zeal  for  God, not  according  to  knowledge; 
but  a  zeal  for  a  worthy  God,  regulated  and  guided  by 
adequate  knowledge,  is  the  most  potent  factor  in  the 
realization  of  the  individual,  and  in  the  transformation 
and  consummation  of  human  society. 

But  I  am  not  here  to  make  an  address.  It  is  not  mine, 
this  afternoon,  to  enlighten  this  audience.  I  simply  press 
the  button,  the  electrifying  light  will  flash  from  other 
minds  and  hearts  than  mine. 

The  first  address,  on  "Baptists  and  Education,"  by 
President  Edgar  Young  Mullins,  D.D.,  of  the  South- 
ern Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  who  unfortunately  is 
absent  on  account  of  illness,  will  be  read  by  the  Rev. 
Henry  Melville  King,  D.D. 

I   74  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

IT  is  related  that  upon  the  occasion  of  his  marriage  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  Henry  M.  Stanley,  as  he  pro- 
ceeded to  the  altar,  laid  a  wreath  of  white  roses  on  the 
tomb  of  David  Livingstone  in  recognition  of  his  indebt- 
edness to  his  great  predecessor  in  African  explora- 
tion. In  behalf  of  every  southern  Baptist,  and  indeed  of 
every  American  Baptist  and  every  Baptist  of  the  world, 
I  would  on  this  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary 
not  only  bring  congratulation,  but  also  lay  a  wreath 
of  good-will,  of  love,  of  admiration  and  loyalty,  not 
indeed  upon  the  tomb,  but  upon  the  radiant  brow  of 
Brown  University,  the  mother  of  us  all  in  the  realm  of 
higher  education. 

The  subject  assigned  me  requires  that  I  speak  of 
Baptists  and  Education.  I  cannot  give  even  in  outline 
a  history  of  Baptist  education  within  the  limits  pre- 
scribed for  this  address.  That  history  has  indeed  many 
interesting  and  thrilling  phases.  It  is  the  history,  in  its 
earlier  period,  of  a  scattered  people  seeking  unity  and 
efficiency ;  the  history  of  an  intensely  democratic  people 
seeking  for  qualified  leaders;  of  a  deeply  religious 
and  spiritual  people  seeking  to  provide  its  pulpits  with 
men  who  should  be  worthy  exponents  of  the  common 
life  and  of  its  great  ideals.  It  is  the  history  of  a  people 
with  a  sense  of  mission,  seeking,  through  education, 
an  instrument  adequate  to  the  fulfilment  of  that  mis- 
sion. If  there  were  time  to  trace  it,  that  history  would 
appear  further,  in  its  beginnings,  as  a  period  of  small 
endowments  and  great  ideals,  of  meagre  apparatus 
and  material  equipment  and  great  visions.  To  be  frank, 
it  would  also  appear  as  the  history  of  a  people  w^ho  at 
times  have  established  far  too  many  schools.  To  bor- 
row a  figure  from  medical  science.  Baptist  colleges 

c  75 : 


Brown  University 

and  academies  have  been  at  certain  epochs  and  places, 
endemic,  sporadic,  and  epidemic.  There  have  been 
many  mistakes  and  many  faikires,  but  there  has  been 
remarkable  progress.  Even  Brown  University  was 
more  than  fifty  years  old  before  its  endowment  ex- 
ceeded twenty-five  thousand  dollars.  Yet  to-day  Baptist 
educational  institutions  in  the  United  States  alone,  not 
to  speak  of  England  or  Canada  and  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  or  of  our  school  systems  in  many  mission  fields, 
number  twelve  theological  seminaries,  one  hundred  uni- 
versities and  colleges,  and  ninety-five  academies,  which 
have  an  endowment  of  between  forty  and  fifty  million 
dollars  and  about  the  same  amount  in  real  estate  and 
buildings.  Since  there  is  not  opportunity  for  an  historical 
treatment  of  the  subject,  I  shall  attempt  briefly  to  ex- 
pound the  Baptist  ideal  of  education  as  arising  from  the 
distinctive  spiritual  life  of  our  people.  Perhaps  no  need  is 
greater  among  us  than  that  our  educational  ideal  shall 
become  articulate  and  clear.  To  this  end,  it  is  important 
to  define  it  in  relation  to  human  progress  in  general 
and  to  those  universal  principles  that  lie  at  the  heart  of 
modern  civilization. 

If  we  wish  to  emphasize  its  progress  from  lower  to 
higher  forms,  we  may  liken  civilization  to  the  row  of 
knives  I  once  saw  in  a  museum,  illustrating  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  jackknife.  It  began  with  a  rude  knife  of  stone 
and  ended  with  a  highly  finished  modern  jackknife. 
If  we  wish  to  emphasize  human  freedom  in  the  on- 
going of  history,  we  may  perhaps  liken  it  to  a  compli- 
cated game  of  chess,  where  the  successive  generations 
are  the  players.  But  if  we  would  emphasize  history  as 
a  life  process  unfolding  from  within ,  we  must  seek  the 
great  universal  human  yearnings  toward  perfection, 

[   76  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

the  vital  and  spiritual  principles  which  forever  impel 
men  toward  the  higher  life  and  attainment.  In  these 
do  we  hear  the  voice  of  God  calling  men  to  the  divine 
life. 

Education,  then,  as  Baptists  conceive  it,  is  a  blos- 
som on  the  stalk  of  religion.  There  are  two  aspects  of 
the  Baptist  conception  of  religion  which  supply  us  with 
a  key  to  the  true  rationale  of  their  view  of  education. 
One  of  these  I  may  fitly  describe  as  the  severity  and 
the  other  as  the  glory  of  the  Baptist  conception  of  reli- 
gion. By  severity  I  mean  the  reduction  of  religion  to  its 
ultimate  elements,  the  rejection  of  those  things  which 
have  served  as  props  but  do  not  belong  to  the  essence 
of  the  religious  life;  things  on  w^hich  men  instinctively 
lean,  but  w^hich  it  is  better  for  them  to  learn  to  do  with- 
out. I  note  a  few  of  them.  Men  have  always  been  fond 
of  priestly  mediators  between  the  soul  and  God :  Bap- 
tists have  wholly  rejected  this  ideal  in  the  interest  of 
the  view  that  all  are  priests.  Men  naturally  incline  to 
sacramental  grace:  Baptists  conceive  the  two  rites  of 
Christianity  in  the  simplest  manner  as  symbols  only. 
Men  easily  cling  to  written  creeds :  Baptists  have  always 
rejected  them  as  having  no  binding  power  whatsoever. 
It  is  a  natural  instinct  of  man  to  lean  on  outward  ec- 
clesiastical authorities:  Baptists  have  ever  insisted  upon 
individual  responsibility,  and  upon  democracy  in  the  life 
of  the  Church. 

Now,  it  requires  little  reflection  to  correlate  this 
severity  and  simplicity  of  the  religious  ideal  with  the 
necessity  for  education.  It  is  clear  that  if  there  is  to  be 
no  human  mediator,  then  there  must  be  a  very  intel- 
ligent and  competent  worshipper.  If  grace  does  not 
come  through  physical  channels,  it  is  clear  that  the 

:  77  ] 


Brown  University 

mental  and  spiritual  powers  must  be  highly  trained. 
If,  for  example,  the  "  real  presence  "  is  not  a  fact  in  the 
realm  of  matter,  it  must  become  a  fact  in  the  realm 
of  mind.  If,  again,  we  are  to  be  a  creedless  people,  we 
must  not  become  a  people  drifting  without  rudder  and 
without  ballast.  To  be  without  binding  creeds  must 
not  mean  an  inarticulate  and  incompetent  intellectual 
life.  It  must  mean  rather  capacity  for  conviction,  and 
steadfastness  without  the  necessity  for  leading-strings. 
Surely,  if  we  are  to  reject  outward  authority,  we  must 
require  the  highest  degree  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
competency  in  the  individual  and  in  the  church.  This  is, 
very  briefly  and  partially,  what  I  mean  by  the  severity 
of  the  Baptist  conception  of  religion.  Men  have  found 
fault  with  this  severity.  They  have  said : ''  You  burn  all 
the  bridges  behind  the  soul ;  you  try  to  build  a  temple 
without  scaffolding ;  you  try  to  make  the  soul  fly  with- 
out wings;  you  leave  it  floundering  in  the  mire."  But 
the  reply  is  found  in  the  other  side  of  this  truth. 

We  glance  now  at  the  glory  of  that  conception  which 
equally  demands  education  as  the  necessary  instrument 
for  its  expression.  I  mention  three  elements  as  constitut- 
ing essentially  the  glory  of  the  Baptist  ideal  of  religion. 

First,  the  intrinsic  worth  of  man  as  man.  It  has  been 
said  that  God's  purpose  in  creation  did  not  appear  until 
the  dust  stood  erect  in  the  form  of  a  man.  Nature  is  a 
cluster  ring ;  man  is  the  chief  jewel  in  the  centre.  Na- 
ture is  a  long  stick;  man  is  the  live  coal  on  the  end 
of  it.  Nature  bursts  into  flame  in  man,  who  sums  up 
all  the  preceding  stages  in  himself.  Man  was  the  goal 
of  the  earlier  stages  because  he  was  the  first  point  where 
the  creation  could  reflect  back  the  true  image  of  God, 
as  a  dewdrop  reflects  the  glory  of  the  morning  sun. 

C   -8   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

Second,  the  direct  relation  of  the  soul  to  God.  This 
is  the  germinal  principle  of  individualism, of  democracy, 
and  of  a  just  social  order.  Individualism  is  one-sided 
and  fragmentary  so  long  as  it  is  isolated.  God's  image 
in  any  man  is  the  guarantee  of  the  presence  of  God's 
image  in  every  man.  There  is  no  sanction  in  ethics 
that  does  justice  to  the  dignity  of  man's  nature  which 
does  not  see  that  moral  and  social  obligation  arises  from 
man's  nearness  to  God,  his  likeness  to  the  Eternal. 
God's  image  in  all  men  creates  social  obligation. 

This  leads  to  the  third  element  in  the  glory  of  the 
Baptist  ideal  of  religion,  namely,  its  view  of  man's  capa- 
city for  God  and  truth.  It  assumes  the  competency  of  the 
soul  in  religion.  Here  we  have  at  once  the  mother  prin- 
ciple of  all  true  education:  man's  capacity  for  God  and 
truth  and  the  corresponding  need  for  all  realms  of  truth 
to  enable  him  to  realize  himself.  Art  is  man's  response 
to  beauty  in  the  universe  about  him.  Science  is  his  re- 
sponse to  the  reign  of  law  in  physical  nature.  Philoso- 
phy is  his  response  to  the  appeal  of  ultimate  truth. 
Government  is  his  response  to  social  law%  morality  is 
his  response  to  righteousness,  and  religion  is  his  re- 
sponse to  God.  Some  one  has  remarked  upon  the  cost 
of  a  daisy.  It  requires  the  mighty  power  of  gravitation, 
w^hich  holds  together  suns  and  systems,  to  shape  the 
daisy.  It  requires  the  great  ocean  to  supply  needed 
moisture.  The  sunlight  travels  nearly  a  hundred  mil- 
lion miles  to  paint  its  petals.  It  requires  the  cosmos  to 
bring  it  to  maturity.  Professor  Newcombe  has  said  that 
we  can  get  a  worthy  conception  of  the  starry  heavens 
only  by  lying  on  our  backs  on  a  bench  or  on  a  roof  on 
a  clear  night  in  autumn  and  gazing  steadfastly  above 
us.  What  I  am  urging  is  that  man's  capacity  for  God, 

C   79   ] 


Brown  University 

the  necessity  for  direct  relations  with  Him,  impHes  the 
necessity  for  all  education,  all  learning.  The  interac- 
tion of  God  and  man  and  of  God's  universe  and  man 
— these  are  the  only  processes  that  can  evoke  the 
hidden  resources  of  the  human  soul. 

Now  the  vital  connection  between  these  ideals  and 
modern  educational  theory  is  easy  to  see.  True  educa- 
tion is  not  recapitulation.  The  Chinaman  who,  in  Lamb's 
essay,  discovered  roast  pig,  accidentally  burned  his 
house  down  with  the  pig  inside.  Ever  after,  when  a 
Chinaman  wanted  roast  pig,  he  drove  the  pig  in  and 
burned  down  the  house.  Chinese  education  was  reca- 
pitulation. 

Education  is  not  merely  mental  discipline,  although 
this  is  an  important  element.  True  education  is  pro- 
gressive adjustment  of  man  to  the  universe  and  to  God. 
It  is  the  unfolding  of  all  man's  powers  in  response  to  all 
the  manifold  wealth  of  truth  and  life  in  the  universe 
around  him. 

These  principles  help  us  to  understand  our  failures 
and  our  successes.  They  show  us  how  to  guide  our  fu- 
ture course.  We  have  been  right  in  insisting  upon  the 
free  and  intelligent  response  of  the  child  to  the  religious 
appeal,  and  in  making  ecclesiastical  rites  wait  upon  such 
response.  We  have  been  wrong  in  failing  to  provide 
adequate  educational  equipment  for  the  proper  unfold- 
ing of  the  nature  of  the  child.  We  have  been  right  in 
insisting  upon  the  direct  action  of  God's  Spirit  in  con- 
version, but  wrong  in  so  far  as  we  have  not  provided 
instruction  adequate  for  a  strong  foundation  and  a  sta- 
ple superstructure  in  intelligence.  We  have  been  right 
in  exploiting  the  idea  of  truth  as  the  primary  agent  in 
character  building,  and  often  pitiably  deficient  in  Sun- 

C   80   3 


Religious  History  of  the  University- 
day-school  equipment  for  imparting  truth.  We  have 
been  right  in  admitting  the  uneducated  to  the  minis- 
try, since  we  dare  not  silence  the  direct  witness  of  the 
Spirit  through  the  individual.  We  have  been  wrong  in 
so  far  as  we  have  permitted  the  uneducated  to  remain 
uneducated,  limiting  his  usefulness  and  allowing  him 
to  be  a  menace  to  our  prosperity.  We  have  been  right  in 
the  impulse  to  multiply  schools,  since  the  impulse  is  the 
product  of  unfolding  life  within.  We  have  been  wrong 
in  failing  sometimes  to  restrain  the  impulse  and  guide 
it  to  wise  ends.  We  have  been  right  in  their  repressible 
missionary  and  evangelistic  passion,  born  of  experience 
of  God's  redeeming  grace  in  Christ.  We  have  been 
wrong  in  so  far  as  we  have  failed  to  make  that  passion 
effective  through  adequate  educational  equipment.  We 
have  been  wise  in  standing  for  Christian  and  denomina- 
tional education,  in  order  to  make  our  proper  contribu- 
tion to  the  world,  but  wrong  whenever  we  have  failed 
to  recognize  the  relation  of  our  work  to  that  of  general 
education. 

Now,  a  few  closing  words  as  to  the  present  duty  of 
Baptists  are  in  order.  For  one  thing,  we  must  grasp 
more  clearly  and  hold  more  firmly  the  immediate  and 
vital  connection  between  our  spiritual  life  and  our 
educational  zeal.  We  must  more  adequately  endow  our 
schools  of  higher  learning.  We  must  no  longer  give  to 
education  a  secondary  place.  We  must  correlate  our  edu- 
cational with  our  missionary  enterprise  in  our  denomi- 
national life  and  machinery.  We  must  cultivate  the  edu- 
cational ideal  in  the  pulpit,  as  that  ideal  has  been  so  well 
expounded  by  the  distinguished  president  of  this  insti- 
tution. We  must  not  forget  that  all  our  enterprise  and 
zeal  will  fail  of  their  end  unless  anchored  to  education. 

C   81    ] 


Brown  University 

''''The  music  and  splendor 
Survive  not  the  lamp  and  the  lute; 

The  hearts  echoes  render 
No  sound  when  the  spirit  is  ynute.''^ 

If  the  lamp  of  learning  burns  low,  the  spirit  will  grow 
dumb  in  its  effort  to  speak  for  God.  If  the  lute-strings 
in  our  educational  system  are  broken,  the  music  which 
lures  men  to  higher  things  will  die  away.  Our  task  is 
a  vast  one,  and  our  equipment  should  be  the  highest 
and  best. 

We  need  the  mood  of  all  the  great  builders,  because 
our  task  is  essentially  a  constructive  one.  We  need  the 
imagination  of  the  architect,  because  we  are  building  a 
human  temple  with  living  men  as  stones.  We  need  the 
passion  of  the  great  poet,  because  divine  fire  alone  can 
fuse  human  spirits  into  the  unity  and  glory  of  the  image 
of  God.  We  need  the  patience  of  the  great  painter  and 
sculptor, because  the  human  material  on  which  we  labor 
is  refractory  and  yields  but  slowly.  We  need  the  in- 
spiration of  the  great  composer,  because  we  live  essen- 
tially in  a  world  of  spiritual  harmonies,  and  it  is  only 
as  we  are  swayed  by  the  eternal  music  that  is  sound- 
ing itself  forever  through  the  heart  of  God  that  we 
can  do  His  work  in  the  world.  We  need  the  sense  of 
proportion  of  the  landscape  gardener  and  his  skill  in 
combining  the  features  of  a  landscape  into  harmoni- 
ous unity,  because  we  must  take  human  nature  as  it  is  in 
all  ranks  and  conditions  and  combine  it  into  spiritual 
harmony.  We  need  the  constructive  genius  of  the  great 
statesman,  because  we  are  a  vast  people  ourselves  and 
deal  with  vast  problems.  We  need  education  and  cul- 
ture, because  our  method  of  winning  men  is  the  appeal 
to  reason  and  conscience.  We  need  skill  to  touch  human 

C   82    ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

motives  and  the  springs  of  human  action,  because  we 
can  appeal  to  men  only  through  the  highest  there  is  in 
them.  We  cannot  compel  men  by  authority  or  attract 
them  by  external  pomp  and  grandeur.  We  have  but  one 
way  of  making  men,  and  that  is  through  the  lure  of 
the  eternal,  the  fadeless  splendor  of  righteousness,  the 
matchless  potency  of  love,  and  the  undying  power  of 
religion  itself. 

President  Isaac  Sharpless,  LL.D.,  of  Haverford  Col- 
lege, was  introduced  by  the  Presiding  Officer,  and 
delivered  an  address  on  "  Quaker  Ideals  in  Education : " 

TWO  streams  of  tendency  have  come  down 
through  the  Christian  centuries.  The  main  current 
has  been  composed  of  those  who  demanded  an  external 
authority  for  their  standard  of  belief  and  conduct.  For 
Catholics  this  standard  was  the  decision  of  the  Church, 
the  organized  body  of  Christ,  continuous  from  the  time 
of  the  apostles,  meeting  the  new  questions  as  they 
arose,  but  guided  by  the  deliverances  of  the  past.  For 
Protestants  it  was  the  Book,  the  original  and  unchange- 
able writings  of  the  first-century  Christians,  revealed 
once  for  all  to  a  selected  body  of  disciples  of  Christ  and 
applicable  to  all  generations  to  come.  Neither  standard 
would  exclude  the  other.  It  was  a  question  of  supreme 
authority  rather  than  of  acceptance,  a  matter  of  prior- 
ity rather  than  of  denial. 

Besides  this  main  current  there  was  also  a  little 
stream,  trickling  down  through  the  ages,  sometimes 
almost  lost  but  again  emerging  in  stronger  volume, 
of  those  who,  while  not  discarding  either  the  Church  or 
the  Book,  denied  the  absolute  necessity  of  any  external 
authority.  They  recognized  the  corporate  teachings  of 

C   83   3 


Brown  University 

the  great  and  good  men  whose  influence  had  kept  the 
Church  in  the  main  true  to  the  standards  of  its  founder, 
and  they  reverenced  the  word  committed  to  the  first 
generation,  but  they  conceived  that  neither  of  them 
could  exactly  speak  to  the  individual  condition,  that  in 
the  application  of  these  great  truths  the  man  was  often 
left  without  the  guide  needed  to  show  him  the  way. 
They  asserted  the  consciousness  of  a  divine  authority, 
the  same  that  granted  wisdom  and  insight  to  the  Church 
and  that  revealed  the  principles  which  made  the  Book 
holy,  as  existing  within  themselves  sufficiently  evident 
to  determine  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life  for  them 
as  individuals.  It  came  from  the  highest  sources  and 
its  authority  could  not  be  gainsaid.  It  would  not  conflict 
with  other  revelations,  but  it  would  give  definite  guid- 
ance and  strength  and  comfort  and  a  sense  of  divine 
approval  or  disapproval  exactly  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  personality  in  every  circumstance  of  life. 

One  needs  only  to  mention  St.  Francis  and  Caspar 
Schwenckfeld  and  Jacob  Boehme  and  Madame  Guyon 
as  a  few  among  many  mystics  who  have  been  in- 
terpreters of  this  tendency.  They  bound  themselves  in 
spirit  with  the  personality  which  was  revealed  in  the 
Gospels ;  they  would  compel  no  one  except  by  thebonds 
of  love,  and  would  suffer  patiently  and  bravely  whatever 
befell,  assured  by  their  inward  witness  that  they  were 
in  the  right  place,  and  that  the  Master  who  directed 
their  lives  would  bring  them  and  their  works  into  the 
triumphs  which  He  intended.  In  this  hne  of  spiritual 
ancestry  may  be  placed  George  Fox  and  the  early 
Friends.  We  are  concerned  with  them  now  only  in  so 
far  as  their  beliefs  and  practice  affected  their  attitude 
toward  higher  education  in  America. 

C   84   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

The  incentive  that  led  to  the  foundation  of  Harvard, 
Yale,  and  Princeton,  and  to  a  lesser  extent  some  of  the 
other  colonial  colleges,  was  the  education  of  the  min- 
istry. Harvard  has  expressed  it  very  definitely :  **  After 
God  had  carried  us  safe  to  New  England,  and  we  had 
builded  our  houses,  provided  necessaries  for  our  liveli- 
hood, rear'd  convenient  places  for  God's  worship,  and 
settled  the  Civill  Government;  One  of  the  next  things 
we  longed  for  and  looked  after  was  to  advance  Learn- 
ing, and  perpetuate  it  to  Posterity,  dreading  to  leave 
an  illiterate  Ministry  to  the  churches,  when  our  present 
Ministers  shall  lie  in  the  dust/' 

There  was  as  good  a  numerical  background  for  a 
Quaker  college  in  Pennsylvania  in  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  as  in  Connecticut  for  a  Congrega- 
tional college  or  in  New  Jersey  for  a  Presbyterian  col- 
lege. Indeed,  for  a  few  decades  it  might  seem  to  have 
been  doubtful  whether  the  religion  of  authority  or  the 
religion  of  the  Spirit  was  to  be  the  prevailing  religion 
of  the  colonies.  Had  the  latter  been  represented  by  vig- 
orous intellectual  exponents  of  its  thought,  giving  to 
each  congregation  of  Friends  at  least  one  clear-thinking 
leader,  whether  minister  or  not  ( better  not ) ,  capable 
of  seeing  into  the  future  and  adapting  methods  to  con- 
ditions, the  history  of  the  colonies  and  of  the  future 
states  might  have  been  differently  written.  It  did  not 
need  defense  so  much  as  exposition,  and  for  lack  of  this 
its  followers  became  conservative,  falling  back  upon 
the  methods  of  the  brave  and  original  men  of  the  first 
generation,  imitators  rather  than  pioneers. 

There  was  a  considerable  number  of  university  men 
among  Friends  of  the  first  generation,  and  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  these  came  to  Pennsylvania.  They  started 

C  85  ] 


Brown  University 

a  school  in  Philadelphia  in  1689,  still  in  honored  exist- 
ence. Why  did  they  not  have  a  college  and  train  their 
educated  leaders  ?  Because  the  education  of  the  schools 
did  not  seem  to  them  essential  to  a  minister.  To  the 
Puritan  of  New  England,  the  Presbyterian  of  the  mid- 
dle colonies,  and  the  Churchman  of  the  south,  with  a 
religion  based  on  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  a  minis- 
ter without  theological  knowledge  could  hardly  be  ima- 
gined. Without  him  the  congregation  would  not  meet, 
or  would  meet  to  no  purpose.  To  the  Friend  such  train- 
ing might  or  might  not  be  an  asset,  but  as  every  man 
was  taught  of  God,  and  the  group  spirit  intensified  the 
interior  influence  of  His  presence,  worship  of  the  sin- 
cerest  sort  could  dwell  in  the  silence,  or  inspired  min- 
istry could  be  uttered  by  the  man  or  the  woman  who 
had  no  antecedent  training  of  the  schools. 

George  Fox  says  that  it  was  "opened  to  him" — a 
favorite  expression  for  stating  what  he  believed  to  be 
a  direct  divine  revelation — *'that  being  bred  at  Oxford 
or  Cambridge  was  not  essential  to  the  making  of  a  min- 
ister of  the  Gospel."  His  generation  indorsed  this  po- 
sition, placing  the  emphasis  on  the  word  "essential;" 
as  Thomas  Elwood,  John  Milton's  secretary,  explains, 
"  When  I  was  a  boy  I  had  made  some  progress  in  learn- 
ing and  lost  it  all  before  I  came  to  be  a  man.  Nor  was 
I  rightly  sensible  of  my  loss  until  I  came  among  the 
Quakers.  But  I  saw  it  and  lamented  it  and  applied 
myself  with  utmost  diligence  to  recover  it.  So  false  I 
found  that  charge  to  be  that  they  despised  and  denied 
all  human  learning  because  they  deemed  it  not  to  be 
essentially  necessary  to  a  Gospel  Ministry." 

The  Friends  that  came  to  America  feeling,  therefore, 
that  an  educated  ministry  was  not  essential  postponed 

I   86  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

their  college  till  the  really  essential  things  were  pro- 
vided, and  this  delay  proved  serious.  For  a  generation 
arose  which  had  no  higher  training  and  did  not  feel 
its  need;  which  also  perhaps,  in  some  cases,  construed 
Fox's ''essential  "into"  desirable, "and  decided  that  edu- 
cation rather  encouraged  what  they  called  the"  notmial 
religion,"  which  Fox  contrasted  with  the  real  living  first- 
hand experience  of  God's  working  in  the  heart.  As  the 
ministry  did  not  need  a  theological  education,  and  as 
they  had  thrown  down  the  definite  distinction  between 
ministers  and  laymen, refusing  to  admit  priestly  offices 
in  their  ministers  as  a  class,  there  seemed  no  vital  need 
for  Quaker  colleges,  and  there  were  none  till  1833. 
The  Friends  had  something  to  do  with  the  founding 
and  maintenance  of  Brown  University,  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania, of  Cornell  University, and  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University.  They  had  an  educational  system 
of  their  own  that  in  many  sections  was  the  best  exist- 
ing, which  took  care  of  the  primary  and  secondary  train- 
ing of  their  children  and  those  of  their  neighbors,  and 
they  had  a  high  level  of  average  culture.  For  gen- 
eral secular  work  some  went  to  existing  colleges,  and 
among  themselves  they  developed  groups  of  rather 
highly  educated  persons,  as  in  Philadelphia  just  prior 
to  the  Revolution.  But  they  had  not  the  general  belief 
in  and  respect  for  higher  learning  which  gave  to  edu- 
cated leadership  its  due  influence,  and  which  furnished 
the  perspective  which  enabled  men  to  see  that  the 
religion  of  the  Spirit  would  not  be  hurt  by,  but  indeed, 
in  the  development  of  its  efficient  manifestations,  was 
dependent  upon,  something  more  human  than  spiritual 
guidance  in  the  heart.  Perhaps  within  a  century  past 
Friends  have  seen  these  things.  While  not  yielding 

C  87  ] 


Brown  University 

their  devotion  to  the  ancient  principle,  they  have  felt 
that  colleges  may  be  its  handmaids  rather  than,  as  the 
most  of  them  were  in  colonial  days,  its  opponents.  So 
it  was  that,  partly  as  a  result  of  their  mystical  inherit- 
ance, a  result  unforeseen  and  somewhat  illogical,  the 
Friends  as  a  denomination  have  had  but  little  place  in 
the  higher  education  of  the  first  century  of  American 
development. 

They  could  not  but  come  into  collision  with  New 
England  Puritanism,  for  the  two  represented  antago- 
nistic types  of  religion ;  the  one  studying  a  theology 
which  was  fixed  and  static,  working  it  out  by  sheer  in- 
tellectual force  and  strategy  from  the  pages  of  a  book 
completed  centuries  before,  but  by  that  very  study  keep- 
ing his  brain  alive  and  active,  the  other  with  a  progres- 
sive and  continuing  revelation  on  which  he  too  much 
relied  to  do  all  the  necessary  work  of  mankind,  becom- 
ing himself  somewhat  static  under  conditions  which  de- 
manded constant  change  and  adaptation. 

Any  emphatic  mystical  movement  is  more  or  less 
temporary.  It  gathers  to  itself  those  who  by  tempera- 
ment are  peculiarly  susceptible  to  direct  spiritual  influ- 
ences. It  transmits  its  name  and  organization  to  its  de- 
scendants, but  its  susceptibility  is  not  always  inherited. 
Birthright  membership,  whether  a  rule  of  its  discipline 
or  a  tradition,  does  not  necessarily  include  only  the  mys- 
tical members  of  the  second  generation,  and  each  suc- 
ceeding generation  goes  farther  and  farther  from  the 
capacity  to  live  on  direct  spiritual  revelation.  Only  by 
a  continuous  influx  of  the  spiritually  minded  from  out- 
side can  such  a  society  be  continued.  For  this  purpose, 
only  by  a  continual  adaptation  of  the  non-essential  ele- 
ments of  the  regulations  to  new  conditions  can  an  asso- 

C   88   J 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

elation  attractive  to  the  mystics  be  maintained,  and  this 
involves  some  worldly  wisdom  and  a  broad  grasp  of 
surrounding  movements,  and  consequently  a  need  for 
much  of  trained  capacity  and  higher  education. 

Yet  the  ability  to  feel  the  direct  impulse  from  higher 
sources,  while  varying  in  degree,  is  never  entirely  ab- 
sent, and  this  ability  may  be  a  safe  basis  upon  which  to 
build  a  growing  church,  if  there  is  also  a  full  recogni- 
tion of  the  needs  of  those  who  cannot  live  on  introver- 
sion alone.  The  man  who  wants  an  external  authority 
and  who  would  precipitate  himself  into  community  life 
around  him  will  exist  everywhere.  Hence  Friends  had 
a  large  place  in  the  political  and  social  life  of  the  colony 
of  Rhode  Island,  and  this  accounts  for  my  being  here 
to-day. 

Roger  Williams  had  no  love  for  them.  "The  people 
called  Quakers,"  he  says, "  hold  no  God,  no  Christ,  no 
Spirit,  no  Angel,  no  Devil,  no  Resurrection,  no  Judg- 
ment, no  Heaven,  no  Hell,  but  what  is  in  man."  Yet, 
bad  as  they  were,  he  would  not  allow  his  principle  of  re- 
ligious liberty  to  have  any  exceptions,  and  he  accorded 
them  all  political  and  legal  rights.  But  he  reserved  the 
very  proper  weapon  of  argument.  And  when  he  found 
that  people  who,  like  himself,  had  left  Massachusetts 
voluntarily  or  otherwise  for  his  free  colony,  or  had 
gathered  there  from  England,  were  becoming  Quak- 
ers by  the  thousands,  his  spirit  arose  within  him.  The 
great  debate  of  August,  1672,  in  the  meeting-house  at 
Newport,  whither  Roger  Williams,  a  man  in  his  seven- 
ties, had  rowed  thirty  miles  to  keep  the  appointment, 
was  characterized  by  the  utmost  freedom,  one  can 
hardly  say  courtesy,  of  debate. 

George  Fox  himself  had  just  been  there,  and  had 

[   89   ] 


Brown  University 

made  a  great  impression,  so  Roger  Williams  proposed 
a  joint  discussion  on  certain  propositions  which  he  had 
drawn  up ;  but  by  this  time  George  Fox  had  moved  on. 
Roger  said :  '*  He  saw  that  consequences  would  roll  down 
the  mountains,  and  therefore  this  old  Fox  thought  it 
best  to  run  for  it  and  leave  the  work  to  his  journeymen 
and  chaplains  to  perform  in  his  absence."  Avoidance  of 
an  issue  was  never  Fox's  habit,  and  he  may  be  believed 
when  he  says,  "I  never  saw  or  heard  of  any  proposi- 
tions from  Roger  WiUiams,  nor  did  I  go  away  in  fear 
of  him  or  them."  But  some  of  Fox's  friends  accepted 
the  challenge,  and  who  got  the  better  of  the  debate 
depends  on  the  party  giving  the  account.  "George 
Fox  digged  out  his  Burrowes"  and  "A  New  England 
Firebrand  Quenched"  were  the  two  books  whose  con- 
tents were  about  as  gracious  as  their  titles,  which  tell 
the  story  of  the  two  sides.  Each  utterly  demolished  the 
other,  and  neither  Baptists  nor  Quakers  had  anything 
left  to  stand  upon.  According  to  William  Edmundson, 
who  conducted  the  debate  for  the  Friends,  "The  bitter 
old  man  could  make  nothing  out.  He  was  baffled  and 
the  people  saw  his  weakness,  folly  and  envy ;"  and  ac- 
cording to  Williams,  Edmundson  was  "A  flash  of  wit, 
a  face  of  brass,  and  a  tongue  set  on  fire  from  the  Hell 
of  Lies  and  Fury." 

These  amenities  of  controversy  can  hardly  indicate 
the  feelings  of  the  people  in  general,  for  a  Quaker  was 
then  governor  by  vote  of  the  people  and  presided  at  the 
discussion.  For  a  century  following  they  were  continu- 
ally in  high  office,  and  during  this  time  they  held  the 
governorship  for  thirty-six  terms.  Coddington,  Easton, 
Clarke,  Coggeshall,  Carr,  Wanton,  were  names  of 
Friends  in  this  highest  office  in  the  colony  and  mould- 

[   90   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

ing  its  policy.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  when  in 
1 764  the  University  was  founded,  and  important  ele- 
ments were  sought  to  be  enlisted  in  its  support,  the 
Friends  were  accorded  a  place  on  its  Board. 

As  in  Pennsylvania,  the  attitude  of  an  official  during 
war  times  was  difficult.  Committed  to  uncompromising 
peace,  he  was  yet  under  the  British  crown  which  de- 
clared war  at  will,  and  England  and  France  fought  out 
their  quarrels  along  the  Canadian  frontier.  The  Indians, 
exasperated  by  an  ungenerous  policy,  sought  vengeance 
in  blood,  and  here  the  Rhode  Island  governors  had  not 
the  power,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  to  quiet  the  difficulty  by 
presents  and  promises.  They  contented  themselves  with 
devising  measures  of  safety,  performing  no  aggressive 
acts,  and  mollifying  feelings  on  both  sides  where  pos- 
sible. With  all  these  difficulties,  the  Friends  performed 
in  full  the  duties  of  citizens,  as  did  other  Christians, 
taking,  till  the  Revolutionary  War,  their  share  of  so- 
cial government  and  responsibility.  George  Fox  had 
advised  them  when  in  the  colony:  "Look  into  all  your 
ancient  liberties  and  privileges — your  divine  liberty — 
your  national  liberty,  and  your  outward  liberties,  which 
belong  to  your  commons,  your  town  and  your  island 
colony.  Mind  that  which  is  for  the  good  of  your  colony 
and  the  commonwealth  of  all  people — stand  for  the 
good  of  your  people  which  is  the  good  of  yourselves." 

In  the  Revolutionary  War,  which  practically  ended 
Quaker  influence  in  politics,  they  had  a  difficult  stand 
to  take.  Opposed  to  war,  they  yet  had  been  associates 
with  the  liberty  party  in  the  different  colonies  in  close 
political  adhesion.  They  had  found  how  to  gain  their 
rights  in  England  and  America  by  persistent  remon- 
strance and  quiet  resistance,  and  were  w^illing  to  try 

C   91    ] 


Brown  University 

the  same  again  when  taxes  and  impositions  were  un- 
righteously levied  upon  them.  But  they  would  not  fight, 
for  fighting  they  thought  was  an  immoral  means  of 
gaining  even  a  worthy  object,  and  so  they  adopted 
the  policy,  which  made  them  extremely  unpopular,  of 
peaceable  neutrality  for  conscience'  sake. 

Pennsylvania  was  settled  by  English  immigrants 
who  were  mostly  Friends  when  they  came.  Rhode  Is- 
land and  southeastern  Massachusetts  were  converted 
to  Quakerism  mainly  as  the  result  of  the  preaching  of 
itinerant  ministers  who  swarmed  the  country,  pushing 
in  most  vigorously  where  they  were  least  wanted.  Yet 
they  were  working  in  the  same  soil  that  had  proved 
so  fertile  in  England.  The  people  were  Friends,  though 
they  knew  it  not.  A  religion  of  quietism, of  an  inward  re- 
vealed knowledge  of  truth,  of  kindliness, and  peace, and 
of  uncompromising  morality  behind  a  meek  exterior, 
— these  were  characteristics  of  the  dissenters  from  the 
rigid  Massachusetts  system, and  when  they  heard  them 
preached  as  organized  religion,  they  simply  found  out 
what  they  were.  In  Connecticut,  where  such  a  dissatis- 
fied and  prepared  population  did  not  exist,  the  Friends 
made  no  headway,  dash  themselves  against  the  stone 
wall  of  ecclesiasticism  as  they  would. 

Though  the  colonial  Friends  got  somewhat  tangled 
up  in  their  own  theology,  and  did  not  establish  colleges 
as  others  did,  and  as  their  numbers  and  consequence 
might  have  justified,  there  are  certain  features  of  early 
Quakerism  which  it  might  not  be  amiss  to  instill  into 
our  college  system  of  to-day. 

The  Friends  of  past  ages  somehow  were  on  the 
right  side  of  a  number  of  moral  questions  very  early  in 
the  history  of  the  movements.  By  the  right  side  one 

C92 : 


Religious  History  of  the  University- 
means  the  side  that  commended  itself  to  the  devel- 
oped j  udgm  ent  of  the  future.  There  never  was  a  Quaker 
duel.  There  never  was  a  Quaker  lottery,  even  in  those 
days  following  the  Revolution  when  all  good  causes, 
churches,  colleges,  public  improvements  of  all  sorts, 
were  promoted  by  them;  when  George  Washington 
did  not  hesitate  to  be  the  president  of  a  lottery  company 
to  develop  the  capital  city ;  when  a  raffle  was  the  easy 
and  approved  method  of  settling  an  estate.  A  century 
before  this  Friends  had  decided  against  them,  and 
would  disown  a  member  who  bought  a  ticket. 

The  contest  against  slavery  dates  from  1688.  In  the 
days  just  before  and  during  the  Revolution  the  manu- 
mission of  all  Quaker  slaves  was  practically  brought 
to  a  close,  and  by  the  end  of  the  century  not  one 
who  could  be  legally  freed  was  held  by  any  Friendly 
master  even  in  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  Up  to  1863 
their  corporate  influence  was  consistently  and  urgently 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  government. 

The  fight  against  war  has  not  had  such  triumphant 
ending.  From  the  time  when  George  Fox  said,  when  im- 
portuned to  take  the  captaincy  of  a  Cromwellian  Com- 
pany, that  he  "lived  by  virtue  of  that  spirit  that  took 
away  the  occasion  of  war,"  there  has  been  a  fairly  con- 
sistent testimony  against  it,  and  seventy  years  of  peace- 
ful Pennsylvania  history  when  all  the  other  colonies 
had  records  of  warfare  indicate  possibilities  of  peace 
with  justice  which  is  worth  some  study.  If  now  the  call 
comes  up  from  Boards  of  Trade,  from  Labor  Unions, 
from  the  Christian  churches,  from  civilized  man  every- 
where, that  wars  must  cease,  it  but  indicates  the  stage 
of  the  movement  when  economic  and  social  arguments 
come  to  the  succor  of  the  moral  principles  which  the 

C  93  ] 


Brown  University 

pioneers  had  urged.  The  converse  of  the  formula  of 
Archbishop  Paley,"  Whatever  is  right  is  expedient/' 
has  many  supporters. 

But  how  did  all  this  happen.'*  The  Friends  were  no 
more  intelligent,  no  more  highly  educated,  no  more 
anxious  to  do  right,  than  others.  They  had  no  better 
organization,  no  more  efficient  leadership.  Is  there  any 
explanation  more  reasonable  than  the  one  they  them- 
selves would  have  given,  that  when  they  got  together  in 
their  quiet  assemblies,  with  thoughts  turned  reverently 
to  the  source  of  good  impulses,  in  Whittier's  words, 

"  The  presence  of  the  wrong  and  right 
They  rather  felt  than  saxv^^  ? 

In  this  time  when  reformatory  zeal  is  at  its  highest, 
when  everything  in  church  and  state  is  liable  to  a  change 
which  is  sometimes  a  betterment,  when  new  standards 
are  continually  set  up,  would  it  be  amiss  to  approach 
the  subjects  in  this  quiet  manner  with  mind  and  heart 
open  to  suggestions  from  the  upper  as  well  as  the  lower 
sources,  and  so  try  to  find  what  things  are  reforms  and 
what  measures  will  be  in  the  future  non-effective?  If 
our  colleges  are,  as  we  often  claim,  educating  the  lead- 
ers of  thought  and  method,  might  they  not  find  a  factor 
here,  sometimes  neglected,  and  determine  whether  a 
group  consciousness  under  proper  conditions  has  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  determination  of  right  and  wrong, 
of  expediency  and  useless  and  unwise  effort.? 

Then  these  early  Friends  were  preachers  of  literal 
truthfulness.  To  make  excessive  claims  for  themselves 
or  their  goods  was  a  proper  object  for  inquiry  and  re- 
proof by  their  overseers.  They  objected  to  calling  a  build- 
ing a  church  because  a  church  was  something  else, 

[   94   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

and  the  name  was  a  claim  to  special  holiness  about  the 
locality.  The  j-ow  to  one  person  then  recently  introduced 
into  England  was  untruthful,  and  so  they  said  thou  and 
thee  to  every  one.  So  also  they  objected  to  oaths  be- 
cause they  would  not  have  two  standards.  Some  of  these 
things  were  doubtless  strained,  and  whatever  vitality 
the  testimonies  had  has  passed  away.  They  kept  ahve, 
however,  the  habit  of  stating  the  exact  truth. 

Who  will  deny  that  our  system  of  higher  education 
needs  something  of  this  tonic.  Even  the  nomenclature 
is  corrupted.  "To graduate"  once  meant  to  finish  with 
a  degree,  or  to  receive  one.  But  our  little  schools  of  all 
sorts  now  graduate  their  boys  and  girls  regularly.  A 
"Professor "was  once  a  teacher  of  high  grade — now 
every  pedagogue  may  usurp  the  title.  "  University,"  a 
term  of  ancient  and  honorable  history,  may  now  be  held 
by  the  meanest  and  most  dishonest  private  adventure 
school.  Catalogues  of  httle-known  colleges  claim, "  Our 
reputation  for  educational  efficiency  is  world  wide. ' ' "  Our 
courses  cover  the  same  ground  as  the  best  institutions 
of  the  country."  Finally,  "It  is  still  true  that  the  major- 
ity of  the  institutions  of  the  United  States  bearing  the 
name  of  University  or  College  take  every  student  that 
they  can  get  quite  regardless  of  their  academic  qualifi- 
cations." These  quotations  come  from  the  recent  Car- 
negie Foundation  report,  but  does  not  many  a  college 
man  know,  not  in  his  own  catalogue  but  in  that  of  his 
dearest  rival,  of  claims  advanced  which  are  not  literally 
fulfilled,  and  announcements  made  which  attract  guile- 
less students,  but  do  not  deceive  them  after  entrance.? 
Is  all  this  making  it  possible  for  these  same  students  to 
cite  the  example  of  their  college  in  justifying  the  fraud 
in  some  of  our  college  athletics,  and  every  shifty  game 

C  95  -} 


Brown  University 

of  business  or  politics  in  after  life  ?  Has  it  anything  to  do 
with  our  national  standards,  which  too  often  applaud 
a  sharp  and  temporarily  successful  strategy  of  dubious 
morality  ? 

There  are,  I  believe,  something  like  one  thousand 
institutions  in  the  United  States  calling  themselves  col- 
leges and  universities.  About  six  hundred  of  these  are 
recognized  by  the  Bureau  of  Washington,  and  its  stan- 
dard is  not  extravagantly  high.  It  excludes  from  the 
list  institutions  not  previously  there  which  have  fewer 
than  twenty  collegiate  students,  which  have  never 
given  a  bachelor's  degree  (though  why  there  should  be 
any  of  this  sort,  I  fail  to  see),  and  those  which  have  too 
little  equipment,  physical  and  intellectual,  to  do  satis- 
factory work.  Even  among  the  six  hundred,  when  one 
analyzes  the  facilities  for  higher  education,  one  has  to 
confess  that  there  is  much  to  be  desired,  and  only  a  few 
of  the  states  have  any  legislation  that  will  correct  the 
evil.  Of  course  the  names  are  assumed  and  the  claims 
made  to  gather  in  students.  "  Colleges  may  do  for  the 
east,  but  the  west  want  the  best  of  everything,"  said  a 
defender  of  a  pretentious  title  covering  a  meagre  equip- 
ment. "Our  youth  must  have  a  University  education." 
But  the  west  is  probably  no  greater  sinner  than  the  east 
or  south.  Is  there  no  need  to  press  upon  college  people 
the  gospel  of  literal  truthfulness.^ 

Then  the  early  Friends  had  a  strong  testimony  to 
democracy.  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  democracy  is. 
It  is  not  equality  of  income  or  of  efficiency.  Thomas 
Jefferson  for  a  brief  time  seemed  to  think  that  it  meant 
that  Presidential  bad  manners  should  be  equal  to  the 
average.  Others  about  the  same  period  thought  that  it 
meant  a  dollar  a  day  wages,  whether  the  recipient  was 

c  96 : 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

a  day  laborer  or  a  judge  or  a  senator.  In  education  it 
has  often  meant  that  the  lower  end  of  the  class  shall 
be  pushed  on  and  the  upper  end  held  back  to  produce 
equality  of  attainment  at  the  time  of  promotion.  Let  us 
suggest  in  education  another  definition.  Democracy  is 
that  condition  where  every  youth  has  equal  opportu- 
nity to  develop  the  best  that  is  in  him,  and  apply  this  to 
the  bright  ambitious  boy  as  to  the  dullard,  to  the  boy  of 
vast  possibilities  whose  life  will  in  influence  outweigh 
hundreds  of  others  as  to  him  who  fills  out  faithfully 
his  humbler  career  of  follower  or  drudge.  It  may  have 
been  a  weakness  of  our  school  system  of  all  grades  that 
the  really  first-rate,  strong  youth  has  been  neglected 
on  the  supposition  that  he  could  take  care  of  himself, 
forgetting  that  though  he  may  not  need  stimulation,  he 
may  need  direction ;  though  not  constant  coaching,  yet 
perhaps  wise  incentive  to  make  the  best  of  a  great 
opportunity. 

But  the  Friends  ha.d  some  idea  of  democracy,  define 
it  as  we  will.  This  vast  suffering  w^hich  they  endured 
as  a  testimony  was  a  symbol  of  superiority.  The  regi- 
cide judges  \vore  their  hats  before  Charles  I,  and  in 
the  next  century,  one  of  the  first  claims  made  by  the 
third  estate  of  the  National  Assembly  of  France  was  the 
right  to  have  their  heads  covered  in  the  presence  of  the 
nobility  and  clergy.  Fox  and  his  friends  would  grant 
this  mark  of  inferiority  to  no  one,  judge  or  magistrate, 
priest  or  king,  nor  require  it  of  others.  When  William 
Penn  came  before  Charles  II  with  his  hat  on,  the  affa- 
ble monarch  remarked  that  it  was  customary  for  only 
one  to  be  covered  in  that  presence  and  removed  his 
own.  It  was  a  testimony  to  some  sort  of  equality,  as 
was  also  the  thou  and  thee  to  all  men  at  a  time  when  the 

[   97   ] 


Brown  University 

obsequiousness  of  the  age  gave  the  plural  pronoun 
to  their  betters  and  the  singular  to  those  below.  The 
Quaker  conscience  worked  where  all  true  reformatory 
movements  must  always  work,  in  the  realm  of  little 
things. 

The  men  with  such  devotion  to  democracy  could  not 
be  otherwise  than  preachers  of  religious  liberty.  To  the 
plausible  argument  that  because  the  Friends  had  now 
a  province  of  their  own  in  Pennsylvania,  they  should 
have  special  privileges  there,  William  Penn  replied: 
"  We  should  then  do  what  we  have  cried  out  against 
others  for  doing,"  and  the  argument  ceased.  Roger 
Williams  hated  Quakerism  with  all  the  strength  of  his 
nature.  He  was  sure  it  was  devil-born  and  thwarted  all 
his  beliefs  concerning  Christianity.  But  he  was,  in  his 
early  life,  in  his  book, "The  Bloody  Tenent  of  Perse- 
cution for  Conscience  Sake,"  a  pioneer  for  religious  lib- 
erty. He  had  suffered  for  it  and,  more  convincing  than 
all,  when  he  had  the  power  he  granted  it  to  these  hated 
schismatics.  Penn  at  a  later  date,  under  more  happy  con- 
ditions and  on  a  larger  scale,  gave  it  to  his  colonists  in 
full  measure.  When,  in  1 787,  the  constitutional  fathers 
were  gathering  together  the  various  successful  experi- 
ments of  one  hundred  years  of  the  governmental  his- 
tory of  the  thirteen  colonies,  they  found  the  vital  prin- 
ciples not  in  the  dogmatism  of  early  Massachusetts 
or  the  class  system  of  Virginia,  but  in  the  civil  and 
religious  liberty  wrought  out  with  pain  and  effort  by 
Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania. 

The  political  descendants  of  Roger  Williams  and 
William  Penn  cannot  force  upon  unwilling  consciences 
a  religious  education.  However  necessary  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  appreciation  of  our  literature,  crammed 

C  98   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

as  it  is  with  Biblical  references, or  from  the  continuity  of 
our  history, builded  and  buttressed  with  Christian  ideas, 
may  be  the  inculcation  of  Bible  truths  into  the  Ameri- 
can youthful  mind,  yet  the  freedom  of  conscience  is  too 
precious  an  inheritance  to  lose.  It  may  be  possible,  as  is 
done  with  moderate  success  in  England  and  Germany, 
to  find  a  method  of  teaching  religious  history  and  be- 
lief that  will  be  acceptable  to  the  great  mass  of  taxpay- 
ers with  some  conscience  clause  that  will  exempt  the 
others.  This  is  a  problem  of  constructive  arrangement 
that  we  may  work  out.  For  undoubtedly  the  broad 
truths  of  Christianity  are  still  welcome  in  most  Ameri- 
can households,  and  the  Church  and  Sunday-school 
do  not  reach  them  effectually  as  means  of  instruction, 
however  valuable  their  spiritual  impulses  may  be.  At 
present,  therefore,  if  the  Bible  is  to  be  taught  as  effec- 
tively as  geography  and  geometry,  it  must  be  done  in 
schools  created  and  maintained  by  private  endeavor. 
Such  schools  would  perform  a  service  which  could  not 
be  expected  of  those  supported  by  the  taxes  of  the  gen- 
eral public.  And  as  the  life  of  Christ  in  the  heart  is  more 
important  than  knowledge  about  Him,  the  wide  field 
of  influence  is  open  to  every  Christian  prophet  and 
teacher,  clerical  or  lay. 

Of  recent  times  we  can  speak  less  than  of  old  of  de- 
nominational influence  in  education  or  anything  else. 
Men  are  accepting  by  battalions  the  doctrines  of  other 
churches  while  still  holding  to  their  old  names  and 
lineage.  If  one  denomination  is  more  a  religion  of  au- 
thority and  another  a  religion  of  the  spirit,  it  is  a  matter 
of  emphasis  rather  than  of  exclusion.  One  can  plead 
then  for  a  type  of  thought  as  applied  to  higher  education 
without  speaking  denominationally.  One  can  see  that  a 

C  99   ] 


Brown  University 

dogmatic  theology  is  not  the  ground  on  which  a  really 
effective  system  of  higher  education  can  be  profitably 
sown.  Is  it  an  accident  that  when  Massachusetts  de- 
parted from  her  narrow  conventions  and  became  the 
home  of  a  broader  liberty,  her  great  college  assumed 
a  priority  due  to  other  causes  than  her  right  to  primo- 
geniture? 

The  bases  of  real  collegiate  success  must  lie  in  the 
field  of  thought,  in  spiritual  and  intellectual  liberty,  and 
in  the  field  of  morals  in  honesty,  sincerity,  and  sim- 
plicity, both  of  the  individual  and  the  institution.  The 
group  which  can  bring  these  about,  whatever  its  name, 
is  true  to  the  best  ideals  of  higher  education,  and  the 
group  which  in  the  past  has  most  effectively  preached 
and  practiced  them  deserves  well  at  our  hands. 

President  John  Martin  Thomas,  D.D.,  of  Middle- 
bury  College,  was  then  introduced, and  gave  an  address 
on  "The  Puritan  Basis  of  Education:" 

THE  first  rules  for  the  government  of  students 
of  Harvard  College,  printed  in  1643,  prescribe 
that "  every  student  be  plainly  instructed  and  earnestly 
pressed  to  consider  well,  the  maine  end  of  his  life  and 
studies  is,  to  know  God  and  Jesus  Christ  which  is  eter- 
nall  life,Joh.  1 7.3.  and  therefore  to  lay  Christ  in  the  bot- 
tome,as  the  only  foundation  of  all  sound  knowledge  and 
Learning."  They  further  enjoin  that  "every  one  shall 
so  exercise  himselfe  in  reading  the  Scriptures  twice  a 
day,  that  he  shall  be  ready  to  give  such  an  account  of 
his  proficiency  therein,  both  in  Theoretticall  observa- 
tions of  the  Language,  and  in  Logick,  and  in  Practical} 
and  spirituall  truths,  as  his  Tutor  shall  require,  accord- 
ing to  his  ability;  seeing  the  entrance  of  the  word  giv- 

[   100  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

eth  light,  it  giveth  understanding  to  the  simple,  Psalm 
119,  130." 

The  significant  fact  in  these  rules  is  not  the  quantity 
of  Scripture,  but  the  fundamental  place  of  religion  in 
the  educational  scheme.  The  main  end  of  studies  is  to 
know  God.  The  true  educational  procedure  is  *'to  lay 
Christ  in  the  bottome."  Light  and  understanding  come 
from  the  entrance  of  the  Word.  Religion  is  conceived 
as  the  very  soul  of  education;  its  records  and  testimo- 
nies are  the  content  of  instruction,  its  exercises  and 
practices  are  enjoined  as  the  principal  occupation  of  stu- 
dent time,  and  its  benefits  and  graces  are  the  chief  end 
to  be  sought. 

This  is  the  historic  position  of  the  New^  England  col- 
lege of  Puritan  or  Congregational  ancestry.  The  min- 
isters of  the  New  Haven  colony  who  laid  their  books 
on  the  table  at  Branford  in  1701  for  the  founding  of  a 
college  were  possessed  of  the  same  conviction  of  the 
fundamental  position  of  religion  in  education  as  had 
inspired  the  founders  of  Harvard  in  1636.  The  insti- 
tutions later  established  by  men  of  the  same  blood  and 
faith,  both  within  New  England  and  beyond  her  bounds, 
were  no  less  persuaded  that  religion  must  be  the  heart 
and  centre  of  academic  endeavor. 

It  was  not  alone  in  the  sphere  of  higher  education  that 
religious  instruction  was  exalted  to  the  highest  place, 
but  in  educational  schemes  of  every  grade.  The  reign 
of  the  New  England  Primer  in  the  common  schools 
down  almost  to  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century 
is  sufficient  evidence  of  this  fact.  The  first  act  of  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  with  reference  to  pop- 
ular education  was  a  request  to  the  elders  of  the  Church, 
in  1641 ,  to  prepare  ''  a  catechism  for  the  instruction  of 


Brown  University 

youth  in  the  grounds  of  religion."  The  Church  was  the 
guardian  and  support  of  the  school,  lower  not  less  than 
higher. 

The  familiar  conclusion  from  this  fact  is  the  exceed- 
ing strenuous  piety  of  our  ancestors.  The  more  im- 
portant observation  is  their  conception  of  the  place  of 
religion  in  education.  In  preparing  a  catechism  for  the 
instruction  of  youth  in  the  grounds  of  religion  they  had 
the  welfare  of  the  rising  generation  in  mind, in  this  world 
as  in  the  next,  not  less  than  the  most  recent  benefactor 
of  some  industrial  high  school.  The  catechism  was  for 
the  children,  not  the  children  for  the  catechism,  as  has 
sometimes  been  unjustly  inferred.  The  curriculum  of 
the  New  England  college  in  the  seventeenth  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries,  surcharged  with  divinity  and  the  sacred 
languages,  was  not  less  a  sincere  and  earnest  endeavor 
to  provide  the  best  possible  training  of  youth  and  to  equip 
them  most  practically  for  the  duties  of  life  than  the  cur- 
ricula of  our  colleges  to-day.  Indeed,  I  am  not  sure  but 
that  the  fathers  were  more  minded  to  prepare  young 
men  for  service  needed  in  the  world,  and  less  fearful 
of  giving  them  something  practical  and  professionally 
helpful,  than  are  their  successors.  They  had  in  mind  the 
needs  of  the  commonwealth  when  their  present  minis- 
ters should  lie  in  the  dust.  They  were  not  enamored  of 
a  particular  plan  of  education  which  they  had  received 
in  their  youth,  and  which  they  were  zealous  in  turn 
to  pass  on  to  others.  They  were  filled  with  ambition  to 
train  up  men  for  work  then  needed,  and  they  projected 
the  best  plan  of  studies  and  discipline  they  knew,  within 
the  limit  of  their  resources,  for  the  making  of  such  men. 
In  that  conscientious  and  devout  endeavor  they  pre- 
scribed the  Bible  in  the  ancient  tongues  as  the  first  text- 

C     102    ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

book,  and  the  exposition  of  divine  truth  and  Christian 
morals  as  the  summit  of  studies. 

We  do  not  sustain  their  tradition  when  we  offer 
an  elective  in  the  Major  Prophets  and  the  Life  of  Paul, 
which  a  student  may  employ  to  even  up  difficult  courses 
in  Mathematics  and  the  History  of  Philosophy.  A  divin- 
ity professor  explained  to  me  the  presence  of  a  hea- 
then, in  race,  creed,  and  morals,  in  his  course  upon  the 
History  of  the  Mediaeval  Church,  by  the  general  stu- 
dent conviction  that  any  subject  which  had  the  word"  re- 
ligion "in  its  title  was  supposed  to  be  soft  and  simple. 
It  should  go  without  saying  that  whatever  we  teach  in  a 
college  of  Puritan  ancestry  in  the  History  of  Religion, 
in  Biblical  Literature,  or  in  Christian  Ethics,  will  be 
as  thoroughly  scientific,  as  resolutely  critical,  and  as 
devoutly  difficult  as  any  branch  of  Mathematics  or  any 
specialty  in  Economics.  The  successors  of  Cotton  Mather 
have  no  business  to  be  soft  and  simple. 

Even  then,  when  the  department  of  Biblical  Litera- 
ture or  the  History  of  Religion  is  on  a  parity  in  aca- 
demic earnestness  and  in  student  respect  with  any  other 
department  of  the  college,  we  do  not  sustain  the  Puri- 
tan tradition  in  religious  education  until  certain  other 
conditions  are  fulfilled.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  no  de- 
partment in  which  the  instructor  needs  more  to  remem- 
ber that  he  is  teaching,  not  primarily  a  subject,  but  men. 
Religion  cannot  be  taught  disinterestedly,  as  a  pure  sci- 
ence. It  has  to  do  with  the  vital  concerns  of  those  who 
learn,  with  the  deepest  problems  of  their  life,  with  the 
questions  on  which  they  have  wondered  and  dreamed 
from  their  childish  days.  They  cannot  be  kept  from  in- 
quiry in  the  class-room  as  to  what  they  shall  believe  and 
what  principles  they  shall  adopt  for  life.  They  should 

C  103  ] 


Brown  University 

not  be  kept  from  such  searchings  of  heart  as  to  per- 
sonal convictions  when  they  study  the  faiths  and  the 
struggles  for  faith  of  the  human  race. They  have  a  right 
to  expect  that  their  own  serious  interests  shall  be  borne 
in  mind,  and  that  some  light  may  dawn  for  them  on  the 
problems  of  their  own  souls.  Any  course  in  religion, 
scientific  though  it  must  be  in  method,  with  full  wel- 
come to  the  severest  critical  analysis  and  respect  for 
its  results,  must  nevertheless  have  its  bearing  on  the 
permanent  religious  problems  of  men,  which  were 
never  more  pressing  than  at  the  present  day. 

The  Old  and  New  Testaments  are  literature,  but 
they  are  literature  quick  with  summons  to  duty,  with 
rally  calls  to  faith,  with  direct  application  to  the  indi- 
vidual. The  writings  of  prophets,  psalmists,  and  apos- 
tles are  not  truly  taught  and  interpreted  as  mere  litera- 
ture, with  questions  of  date  and  authorship  and  style: 
they  are  messages  to  the  souls  of  men,  and  they  are 
justly  interpreted  only  when  their  truth  flashes  direct 
to  the  conscience  of  the  man  who  studies  them.  As  well 
teach  art  without  any  glow  of  enthusiasm  for  beauty 
as  to  instruct  from  Isaiah  and  Paul  without  spiritual 
appeal. 

Religious  instruction  in  our  colleges  has  failed  of  its 
largest  effect  because  it  has  not  been  sufficiently  reli- 
gious. In  the  reaction  from  unscientific  methods  in  the- 
ology and  uncritical  use  of  Scripture  we  have  filled  up 
our  courses  with  criticism  and  science  and  left  out  the 
spirit  and  the  soul.  We  have  analyzed  the  husk  and  for- 
gotten the  kernel.  If  the  courses  in  the  department  of 
religion  were  known  as  searching  and  vital  studies  of 
the  enduring  religious  problems  of  humanity,  and  of  the 
questions  of  faith  which  confront  every  man  who  lives 

C  104  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

earnestly,  on  the  basis  of  the  great  literatures  which 
deal  with  those  questions,  and  if  it  were  a  matter  of 
common  knowledge  that  every  student  taking  such 
courses  would  be  brought  day  after  day  to  real  grip  with 
the  very  issues  of  life,  our  religious  teaching  would 
strengthen  mightily  its  hold  upon  the  student  heart. 
Only  by  such  procedure  can  we  carry  out  the  Puritan 
tradition  in  religious  education ;  and  that  much  of  the 
tradition  at  least  we  can  doubtless  all  agree  should  be 
preserved. 

We  do  not  reach  the  heart  of  the  matter  when  we 
strengthen  and  humanize  a  few  courses,  usually  elected 
by  a  small  fraction  of  the  student  body,  in  one  of  the 
many  inviting  departments  which  compete  for  the  at- 
tention of  upper-classmen.  What  shall  we  say  of  the 
Puritan  conviction  that  the  "main  end  of  studies"  is 
to  know  God,  and  that  the  true  educational  method  is 
"to  lay  Christ  in  the  bottome".?  Has  religion  any  place 
in  determining  the  fundamental  aims  and  spirit  of  the 
work  of  a  college  and  in  setting  the  goal  of  endeavor  in 
the  several  arts  and  sciences.'* 

We  have  come  a  long  way  from  the  religious  belief 
of  Cotton  Mather  and  James  Manning;  and  no  one 
would  seriously  propose  to  bring  back  their  system  of 
doctrine  as  an  element  of  college  teaching,  or  to  intro- 
duce into  the  discipline  of  a  university  their  extremes 
of  religious  manner.  But  these  were  only  accidental 
and  temporary  accompaniments  of  a  principle  which 
lay  deeper  than  their  regulations  of  religious  practice 
and  the  particular  articles  of  their  creed.  That  principle 
was  that  the  purpose  of  education  is  the  development 
of  freedom  in  the  soul  of  man,  the  establishment  of  his 
spirit  in  the  possession  of  truth  which  enables  him  to  be 

C  105  n 


Brown  University 

himself  despite  the  worst  that  the  world  may  do  unto 
him.  They  sought  to  make  men  victors  in  this  world  of 
mighty  material  forces,  and  to  assure  the  triumph  of  the 
spirit  of  man  in  the  face  of  all  that  tends  to  crush  and 
subdue  it.  Separated  by  the  great  sea  from  the  culture 
and  civilization  of  the  ages,  behind  them  the  forests 
and  wilds  of  a  far-stretching  continent,  their  liberties, 
their  homes,  their  very  lives  insecure,  from  their  nar- 
row homes  on  the  borders  of  a  new  and  unknown  world 
they  sought  to  lift  their  spirits  to  the  great  God  in  whom 
is  eternal  safety  and  peace.  In  fellowship  with  Him  they 
would  triumph  over  every  failure  in  their  earthly  lot, 
and  take  orders  to  their  heart  only  from  the  uncon- 
quered  soul  within  them.  They  prescribed  religion  as 
the  end  of  studies  in  order  that  their  children  might 
have  the  same  victory  over  the  world  as  they  them- 
selves had  wrested  through  their  faith. 

Divested  of  the  forms  of  thought  and  the  religious 
manner  of  a  particular  day,  their  principle  that  the  re- 
ligious motive,  which  is  the  establishment  of  freedom 
in  the  soul  of  man,  shall  guide  and  inspire  every  study 
and  every  instructor  is  as  valid  and  valuable  as  in  the 
age  when  the  founders  of  New  England  education  ap- 
plied it  so  resolutely  and  in  a  manner  so  foreign  to  our 
thought.  The  main  end  of  studies  still  is  the  victory  of 
the  spirit  in  the  life  of  man.  Our  enthusiasm  is  to  enable 
youth  to  reach  fulfillment  of  the  promise — Thou  shalt 
have  dominion.  Our  motive  is  the  very  heart  of  religion, 
the  endeavor  to  establish  men  in  security  of  spirit  in  this 
world  of  conflict  and  suffering  and  tragedy.  By  health 
of  body,  keenness  of  mind,  and  intensity  of  will  we  seek 
to  enable  them  to  put  up  a  good  fight;  by  discipline 
of  spirit  and  nobility  of  character  we  endeavor  to  lift 

C    106  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

them  above  every  defeat,  that  whatever  tlie  buffeting, 
baffling  world  may  do  to  them,  they  may  be  secure  in 
inner  triumph. 

With  this  holy  ambition  we  cannot  deny  our  fellow- 
ship with  the  prophets.  It  is  a  religious  benefit  we  are 
seeking  to  bestow.  We  may  not  have  called  it  such,  but 
our  consecration  to  the  high  calling  of  leading  youth  to 
the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world  is  faith. 

It  is  the  religious  spirit  which  is  responsible  for  our 
tenacious  hold  on  the  humanities.  Sometimes  our  devo- 
tion to  humane  learning  is  attributed  to  sheer  conserv- 
atism, or  to  prejudice,  and  perhaps  often  we  ourselves 
render  an  insufficient  justification,  and  support  our  pas- 
sion by  unsound  argument.  The  deep  underlying  cause 
of  the  attachment  of  the  Puritan  college  to  liberal  stud- 
ies is  the  worth  of  those  studies  in  the  cultivation  of 
the  free  spirit.  My  fundamental  need  as  a  man  is  not 
to  know  how  things  are  made  and  put  together,  nor 
how  they  act  and  react  on  one  another,  but  rather  how 
I,  physically  the  veriest  atom  of  the  universe,  may  rise 
superior  to  the  entire  sum  of  the  mass  of  matter,  and 
be  myself,  despite  the  boundless  universe  of  form  and 
stuflf.  Therefore  I  must  study  chiefly  the  victors  who 
have  gone  before  me :  I  must  study  history  because  it  is 
the  story  of  victors  in  the  realm  of  action;  I  must  mas- 
ter the  literatures  of  great  peoples,  modern  and  ancient, 
that  from  them  I  may  draw  in  the  courage  by  which 
they  overcame;  I  must  study  religion,  also,  because  it 
is  the  work  of  heroes  of  belief;  and  faith,  in  this  world 
of  difficulty,  has  helped  men  most  to  overcome. 

Humanity's  contest  is  not  with  Nature;  she  is  our  ally 
and  our  friend.  Our  fight  is  within,  and  the  weapons  that 
tell  are  not  carnal,  not  physical:  they  are  the  truth  the 

i  107  3 


Brown  University- 
prophets  have  forged  out  of  life;  the  songs  the  poets 
have  opened  their  hearts  to  hear;  the  visions  the  mar- 
tyrs have  caught  from  God ;  the  words  of  spirit  and  life 
which  men  of  thought  and  insight  of  all  creeds  and 
times  have  written  for  the  learning  of  those  who  would 
hold  their  human  heritage.  We  will  not  let  go  our  grip 
on  that  which  is  high,  and  our  upward  striving  man- 
hood chains  us  to  the  humanities,  in  whose  pursuit  alone 
we  can  keep  to  our  human  estate. 

The  religious  basis  of  education  indicates  also  the 
spirit  in  which  all  studies  should  be  pursued  and  the 
object  and  purpose  which  must  be  sought  in  them.  All 
branches  of  knowledge  should  be  followed  in  a  college 
in  a  humane  spirit  and  unto  a  human  end.  The  study 
of  the  classics  in  college  is  not  to  make  classical  scholars 
chiefly,  but  to  induce  mastery  of  the  qualities  of  mind 
and  spirit  embodied  in  the  classical  literatures.  It  is  the 
soul  of  Homer  we  are  after,  not  the  language  of  Homer, 
nor  even  the  mental  aptitudes  which  may  be  induced  in 
the  pursuit  of  that  language.  The  study  of  the  sciences 
is  not  primarily  for  the  facts  of  material  and  economic 
value  they  contain,  but  for  the  sense  of  proportion,  the 
reverence,  the  humility  they  induce  in  one  who  comes 
to  know  something  of  the  history  and  the  laws  of  this 
marvelous  universe.  The  question  for  present  education 
is  not  whether  science  or  letters  should  be  chiefly  pur- 
sued, but  whether  science,  and  letters  also,  shall  be  fol- 
lowed in  a  utilitarian  and  materialistic  spirit,  or  with  a 
view  to  the  larger  development  of  manhood.  The  value 
of  the  tradition  of  the  religious  basis  of  our  education  is 
that  it  sanctified  all  studies  to  the  building  of  a  man- 
hood spiritually  free. 

The  religious  spirit,  therefore,  has  still  much  to  con- 
[   108   ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

tribute  to  American  education.  By  its  insistence  on  per- 
sonal values  it  sends  us  to  the  humanities,  those  studies 
in  which  alone  we  discover  and  maintain  our  worth.  By 
the  fires  it  kindles  for  the  victory  of  the  spirit  over  all 
things  and  forces,  it  sanctifies  our  industry  and  research 
in  every  department  of  the  physical  realm.  In  the  face  of 
our  marvelous  triumphs  over  material  forces,  it  warns 
us  of  the  indubitable  fact  that  man  cannot  live  by  bread 
alone,  no  matter  how  large  and  rich  the  supply.  It  lifts 
the  most  prosaic,  earthy  science  into  the  higher  realm 
of  the  spirit.  It  bids  us  educate  men  as  men,  and  not  as 
clever  brutes. 

The  religious  spirit  is  something  very  deep  and  subtle. 
It  escapes  the  confines  men  build  for  it,  and  in  places 
where  it  is  unauthorized,  unrecognized,  perhaps  un- 
bidden, finds  a  more  congenial  home.  Religion  has  not 
lost  its  power  in  American  education.  The  sincere  love 
of  truth,  whatever  the  truth  may  be,  is  more  religious 
than  the  resolution  to  propagate  a  fixed  and  determined 
system  of  truth.  The  free  service  of  all  the  people,  with- 
out sectarian  interest,  is  more  godly  than  partisan  ser- 
vice of  a  portion  of  the  people.  The  lifting  of  the  life 
of  a  commonwealth  is  assuredly  not  less  pious  than  the 
endeavor  to  provide  officers  for  a  particular  organiza- 
tion in  that  commonwealth.  We  are  delivered  in  these 
times  from  the  narrow,  ecclesiastical  zeal  of  the  found- 
ers of  American  education,  but  the  deeper,  broader 
religious  feeling,  which  accompanied  that  zeal  and  sanc- 
tified it,  and  which  has  its  life  and  its  assurance  of  per- 
manence in  our  very  nature  as  men,  still  commands  and 
dictates  an  education  broad  in  scope,  large  in  spirit,  and 
directed  to  the  cultivation  of  the  spirit  that  is  in  man 
and  the  life  which  he  shares  with  God. 

[   109  ] 


Brown  University 

The  Presiding  Officer  then  introduced  as  the  final 
speaker  the  Rt.  Rev.  James  De  Wolf  Perry,  D.D., 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Rhode  Island  in  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  the  subject  of  whose  address  was 
"Religious  Education  in  the  Modern  College." 

IF  we  accept  the  statement  that  life  is  measured  by 
ideas,  not  years,  the  lapse  of  time  since  the  begin- 
nings of  our  New  England  colleges  may  well  be  gauged 
by  changing  conceptions  of  religious  education.  The 
founders  of  Harvard  College,  as  already  quoted,  de- 
clared that,  after  establishing  homes,  meeting-houses, 
and  a  government,  "one  of  the  next  things  we  longed 
for  and  looked  after  was  to  advance  Learning  and  per- 
petuate it  to  Posterity,  dreading  to  leave  an  illiterate 
Ministry  to  the  churches."  The  early  records  of  Yale 
College  and  of  Brown  University  reflect  the  same  pur- 
pose to  provide  for  an  educated  Christian  ministry. 

These  fathers  of  American  universities  may  be  justly 
charged  with  a  restricted  outlook  upon  the  whole  field 
of  opportunity.  The  wealth  of  technical  courses  in  the 
modern  curriculum  would  have  baffled  them  more  hope- 
lessly than  it  bewilders  even  the  fastidious  freshman  of 
to-day.  They  had  not  the  extensive  view  of  education 
which  we  boast.  They  had,  however,  the  power  to  rec- 
ognize and  adopt  the  fundamental  principle  that  higher 
learning  was  misnamed  if  it  had  not  its  origin  in  the 
spiritual  faculties  of  men,  and  that  the  search  for  truth 
was  doomed  to  failure  until  the  quest  was  followed  into 
the  presence  of  God  as  revealed  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  Christian  ministry  was  the  acknowledged 
agency  through  which  this  academic  ideal  was  to  be 
realized.  But  the  object  in  view  was  not  professional.  It 

c  110 : 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

contemplated  the  wide  intellectual  and  spiritual  culture 
for  which  the  word"  university  "hadalways  stood. View 
the  lists  of  early  graduates  from  Brown  University, 
preeminent  among  them  all  the  family  from  which  the 
University  has  its  noblest  traditions  and  its  name.  There 
is  no  need  in  this  presence  to  enumerate  them  nor  to 
describe  the  service  that  they  rendered.  They  were  not 
all  enrolled  in  the  Church's  ordained  ministry,  but  in 
their  respective  callings,  military,  legal,  and  ecclesi- 
astical, they  fulfilled  the  religious  purpose  written  in 
the  charter  of  their  Alma  Mater,  by  bequeathing  to  the 
state,  the  nation,  and  the  world  the  rich  fruits  of  a  Chris- 
tian education. 

We  cannot  claim  for  these  pioneers  of  education  in 
America,  for  they  explicitly  denied  the  claim,  that  the 
religious  function  of  the  college  had  achieved  perfec- 
tion in  their  hands.  It  was  their  part  to  perceive  in  right 
proportions  the  task  committed  to  them, and  to  leave 
to  future  generations  the  solution  of  the  problem.  It  is 
ours  to  labor  in  the  light  of  their  example  and  to  gauge 
our  efforts  by  their  high  ideals.  Our  boasted  progress 
of  material  and  intellectual  achievement  in  scholastic 
institutions  can  prove  its  value  only  when  brought  to 
judgment  before  the  spiritual  standards  once  by  them 
upheld. 

Here  is  a  sacred  inheritance  to  which,  like  every 
other,  we  are  responsible  but  not  enslaved.  In  the  light 
of  it  we  are  to  examine  the  field  of  religious  education 
in  the  modern  college  and  learn,  if  we  may,  where 
lost  ground  may  be  regained  and  new  opportunity  dis- 
covered. One  valuable  lesson  has  been  learned  from 
costly  experience.  It  is  well  that  we  should  accept  it  as 
a  premise  and  thus  guard  ourselves  against  the  repeti- 

C  111  ] 


Brown  University 

tion  of  a  traditional  mistake.  The  problem  in  hand  can- 
not be  solved  by  formulating  abstract  propositions  and 
fitting  them  perforce  into  a  scheme  of  education. 

To  determine  what  hypothetical  system  should  ap- 
ply to  a  hypothetical  youth, or  even  to  expand  our  finely 
wrought  ideals  before  the  student's  eyes,  with  the  hope 
of  winning  his  approval  and  enthusiasm,  must  inevita- 
bly result  in  waste  of  time  and  loss  of  his  respect.  The 
literal  significance  of  the  word'*  education  "as  the  de- 
velopment of  latent  faculties  is  not  surrendered,  but 
rather  emphasized  twofold,  when  the  process  is  related 
to  the  soul.  Therefore,  to  save  our  subject  both  from 
vagueness  and  arbitrary  treatment,  let  us  translate  the 
question  from  theoretical  to  purely  practical  terms  and 
consider  the  problem  of  religious  education  as  it  con- 
fronts us  in  the  person  of  that  very  real  but  complex 
being,  the  candidate  for  a  college  course. 

We  will  agree  that  the  most  difficult  of  college  stud- 
ies is  the  student.  We  must  not  now  attempt  to  analyze 
him, but  may  consider  certain  conditions, three  notably, 
which  explain  his  spiritual  attitude.  To  understand  them 
is  to  understand  his  need  and  the  opportunity  of  reli- 
gious education  in  the  university.  He  comes,  this  seeker 
for  the  truth  ( except  in  rare  abnormal  instances  which 
need  not  be  considered),  with  a  point  of  view  already 
more  or  less  defined.  However  this  has  been  acquired, 
whether  from  his  home  or  school  or  church,  it  describes 
the  angle  of  his  spiritual  outlook.  The  chances  are  that 
it  is  unintelligent.  Almost  certainly  it  has  been  gained 
through  prejudice  and  incomplete  experience.  In  any 
case,  this  point  of  view  is  the  point  of  contact  between 
the  soul  and  God.  Moreover,  it  marks  the  ground  for 
an  existing  fellowship  of  those  who  share  with  him  a 

[    "2    ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

similar  religious  experience  and  usage.  Since  the  word 
"denomination"  conveys  in  popular  language  the  idea 
of  this  specialized  religious  thought,  we  may  accept  it 
for  the  sake  of  understanding.  But  the  actual  fact  of  par- 
ticular spiritual  inheritance  and  training  is  larger  than 
the  term,  and  with  that  we  are  concerned.  Now,  the 
tendency  in  the  religious  life  of  our  colleges  for  many 
years  has  been  to  rid  the  mind  of  all  predispositions  in 
order  that  the  student  might  reach  his  own  conclusions 
without  bias,  and  that  the  student  body  might  find  com- 
mon ground  for  faith  and  worship. 

This  experiment  of  undenominational  Christianity 
found  favor  in  the  universities  of  England  and  all  parts 
of  America  until  the  inevitable  result  was  manifest:  that 
the  foundations  of  traditional  faith  and  practice  had  been 
taken  from  the  young  man  at  the  critical  period  of  his 
development,  in  order  that  he  might  stand  with  others 
on  ground  acceptable  to  all.  This  agreement  is  reached 
on  the  terms  of  an  irreducible  minimum  of  religion.  The 
fact  is,  that  the  spiritual  emotion  common  to  a  whole 
community  of  college  men  is  not,  in  any  accurate  sense, 
religion.  An  ambition  for  social  service,  an  indulgence 
of  the  instinct  of  fellowship,  and  even  splendid  ethical 
ideals,  which  constitute  the  religious  programme  of 
many  colleges,  may  offer  effective  and  stimulating  ex- 
ercises for  the  moral  and  the  social  sense,  but  they  are 
inadequate  as  substitutes  for  genuine  religious  training. 
They  will  not  of  themselves  satisfy  the  normal  craving 
of  the  human  heart  for  God.  Neither  in  college  nor  in 
after  life  can  the  heights  of  inspiration  be  attained  along 
the  levels  of  compromise.  The  only  genuine  incorpo- 
ration of  spiritual  ideals  will  have  been  realized  when 
right  of  way  and  encouragement  shall  be  given  to  the 

C    >13   ] 


Brown  University 

traditional  faith  and  affiliations  of  the  individual  student 
and  of  every  church.  This  is  the  plan  of  interdenomi- 
national as  opposed  to  undenominational  Christianity. 
It  is  clearly  enunciated  in  an  official  statement  of  the 
Christian  Student  Movement  in  Great  Britain  which, 
to  quote  the  words  of  the  report,  "  is  interdenomina- 
tional in  that,  while  it  unites  persons  of  different  reli- 
gious denominations  in  a  single  organization,  it  recog- 
nizes their  allegiance  to  any  of  the  various  Christian 
bodies  in  which  the  body  of  Christ  is  divided.  It  be- 
lieves that  loyalty  to  their  own  denomination  is  the  first 
duty  of  Christian  students.  Thus  the  movement  is  in 
a  position  to  have  its  life  enriched,  while  its  members 
bring  as  their  contribution  all  the  truth  for  which  their 
own  denomination  stands." 

Such  ideals  of  religious  life  and  education  find  elo- 
quent expression  in  the  beginnings  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Brown  University.  When  Roger  Williams  marked  the 
boundaries  of  Providence  Plantations  from  the  rest  of 
New  England,  he  was  providing  a  citadel  not  prima- 
rily for  the  refuge  of  one  sect,  but  for  the  freedom  of 
individual  religious  conviction.  When,  later.  Manning, 
Jen  ekes.  Brown,  and  others  resisted  the  attempt  to 
force  the  new  college  in  Rhode  Island  into  conformity 
with  the  Congregational  hierarchy  of  Connecticut  and 
the  Puritan  despotism  of  Massachusetts,  the  citadel  was 
saved,  and  the  right  of  denominational  freedom  in  the 
domain  of  American  education  was  assured. 

I  am  speaking  now  of  something  far  more  vital  than 
questions  of  polity  and  ecclesiastical  privilege.  Here  is 
involved  the  essential  condition  of  loyalty  which  stands 
with  liberty  as  one  of  the  two  foundations  of  all  sound 
religion.  Unless  the  growing  man  finds  truth  in  what- 


Religious  History  of  the  University 

ever  field  it  may  be  sought,  embodied  in  some  cause 
commanding  his  allegiance  and  self-sacrifice,  the  quest 
of  truth  sinks  to  the  plane  of  an  idle  pastime.  By  the 
same  token,  unless  the  search  for  God  inspires  loyal 
devotion  to  an  institution  symbolic  of  His  presence  and 
consecrated  to  His  purposes,  the  thought  of  God  be- 
comes a  mere  negation. 

The  need  for  a  conserving  influence  will  suggest  the 
second  fact  which  may  be  postulated  of  the  average 
student.  He  enters  college  at  the  age  of  spiritual  read- 
justment. This  means  more  than  the  process  of  recon- 
structing the  content  of  belief.  It  means  a  complete 
change  in  the  relations  between  his  faculties  of  percep- 
tion and  volition,  of  information  and  spiritual  vision.  The 
teacher's  opportunity  of  unfolding  to  the  mind  at  that 
critical  period  a  new  world  of  knowledge  leaves  wide 
room  for  the  temptation  to  exploit  the  intellect  for 
the  suppression  rather  than  the  reasonable  exercise  of 
faith.  It  must  be  confessed  in  all  honesty  that  our  uni- 
versities have  not  mightily  resisted  this  temptation.  On 
the  contrary,  there  has  been  a  universal  passion  for 
experiment  in  spiritual  vacuums.  The  result  has  been  a 
distortion  of  the  normal  functions  of  the  human  facul- 
ties. The  intellect  divorced  from  the  higher  conscious- 
ness is  left  in  the  false  position  of  supremacy,  making 
the  acquisition  and  analysis  of  facts  the  chief  end  of 
learning;  while  religion  deprived  of  the  disciplining 
power  of  the  mind  is  relegated  to  the  domain  of  feel- 
ing. In  order  that  fair  judgment  may  be  passed  upon  this 
question,  there  must  be  remembered  the  aim  of  all  edu- 
cation. It  is  the  proportionate  cultivation  of  the  powers 
which  enable  man  to  live  the  best  and  fullest  life.  To 
this  end  information  is  insuflficient  without  deep  con- 

[    "5   ] 


Brown  University 

viction.  Unless  education  is  to  become  debased  to  thinly 
disguised  materialism,  intellectual  development  must 
be  controlled  by  a  faith  that  has  been  grounded  on 
intelligent  and  permanent  foundations. 

On  one  of  the  great  avenues  of  New  York  City  the 
multitudes  who  come  and  go  have  watched  for  five  years 
the  erection  of  a  stately  church  supplanting  a  temporary 
structure  which,  while  still  standing,  seemed  gradually 
to  merge  into  the  great  edifice.  Month  after  month  the 
congregation  gathered  in  its  accustomed  place  while 
beneath,  around,  and  above  them,  by  imperceptible 
degrees,  the  foundations  and  superstructure  enveloped 
them  with  enduring  power  and  increasing  beauty. 

Very  like  this  is  the  process  which  should  mark  the 
student's  spiritual  growth.  Without  moving  him  from 
the  ground  whereon  he  stands,  nor  removing  from  him 
the  convictions  that  he  has,  the  college  course  gives  his 
faith  the  power  to  reach  down  to  a  surer  foundation  and 
out  to  a  wider  and  more  splendid  vision  of  the  truth. 

The  college  graduate  should  have  learned  to  view 
his  religious  experience  in  relation  to  all  Christian  his- 
tory. He  should  have  traced  the  streams  of  spiritual  cul- 
ture that  enrich  his  world  back  to  their  sources  in  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments.  Above  all  he  should  have 
had  opportunity  to  examine  his  beliefs  in  the  light  of 
those  conclusions  reached  through  generations  of  Chris- 
tian scholars  andcontained  in  thegreat  formulas  of  faith. 
In  this  high  purpose  of  a  university  all  the  members  of 
a  faculty  have  joint  responsibility.  There  must  be  oppor- 
tunity of  course  for  specialization  in  a  well-equipped  de- 
partment. But  religious  education  in  its  largest  sense  is 
not  confined  to  this.  To  be  genuine  and  effective,  it  must 
describe  the  prevailing  attitude  of  the  whole  teaching 

C    116  ] 


Religious  History  of  the  University- 
staff  and  the  spirit  pervading  lecture  room,  seminar,  and 
laboratory.  I  have  known  the  spiritual  tone  of  one  uni- 
versity to  be  secured  by  the  influence  of  a  professor  of 
mathematics  as  effectively  as  I  have  seen  it  elsewhere 
combated,  if  not  defeated,  by  the  adroit  mind  of  one 
professor  of  political  economy.  Here  is  the  key  to  the 
problem.  The  ideal  of  Christian  education  will  not  be 
realized  by  new  systems  of  instruction.  These  will  come 
in  the  wake  of  the  movement.  Neither  will  it  be  secured 
by  restatements  of  doctrine.  These  will  take  form  as 
the  truth  becomes  perceived.  The  training  of  intelligent 
and  loyal  Christians  will  be  accomplished  under  the 
leadership  of  believing  men,  whose  teaching  and  exam- 
ple reflect  their  faith  and  kindle  conviction  in  the  minds 
of  others. 

One  final  step  remains,  transcending  every  other  in 
importance.  Faith  is,  indeed,  as  we  have  found,  the  test 
of  spiritual  culture.  But  faith,  in  its  last  analysis,  is  not 
to  be  confined  to  the  acceptance  of  a  creed,  however 
vital  and  reasonableone's  belief.  Faith  is  *'  the  convinced 
consciousness  of  a  life  lived  in  the  atmosphere  of  God," 
and  as  such  it  finds  its  origin,  its  discipline,  and  its  full 
expression  in  the  act  of  worship.  To  this  conception  of 
religion  the  mental  processes  and  habits  of  the  student 
normally  incline.  Whatever  be  his  intellectual  proclivi- 
ties, and  in  whatever  subject  he  may  be  engaged,  his 
personal  relation  to  the  truth  tends  to  make  of  him  the 
mystic  rather  than  the  skeptic.  He  moves  and  thinks 
in  the  presence  of  the  great  mysteries  of  life.  The  rev- 
erent attitude  he  owes  to  them  demands  in  all  consis- 
tency a  reverent  approach  to  God.  The  cultivation  of 
that  spirit  of  devotion  is  a  vital  factor  in  all  complete 
religious  education.  When  this  fact  is  given  its  full 

C    >17   J 


Brown  University 

import,  chapel  services,  voluntary  prayers,  and  all  the 
other  opportunities  for  worship  will  be  designed  to 
stimulate  his  spiritual  powers,  not  to  indulge  them.  The 
serious  effects  of  carelessness  and  lethargy  in  the  char- 
acter of  worship  will  be  as  clearly  recognized  as  an 
equal  laxity  in  scientific  and  literary  pursuits.  The  soul, 
no  less  than  the  mind,  develops  under  discipline  from 
exercise  that  requires  honest  effort  and  commands  re- 
spect. 

For  the  new  era  of  faith  that  begins  to  dawn  upon 
the  darkness  now  engulfing  us,  the  universities  owe 
to  the  world  leaders  and  not  laggards  in  religious 
thought  and  life:  men  of  courage,  who  have  examined 
the  ground  of  their  belief  and  can  stand  as  champions 
of  the  truth ;  men  of  conviction,  whose  loyalty  rests  on 
sure  foundations;  men  of  reverence,  whose  learning 
has  led  them  into  the  conscious  presence  of  God. 


Z   118   3 


The  Celebration   Play 

A  Celebration  Play  was  presented  at  the  Provi- 
dence Opera  House  on  Monday  evening,  twelfth 
October,  under  the  general  direction  of  Professor 
Thomas  Crosby,  Jr.,  Associate  Professor  of  English 
and  Public  Speaking.  The  performance  consisted  of  the 
play'* The  Provoked  Husband,"  byjohn  Vanbrugh  and 
Colley  Cibber,  and  an  inclosing  play  entitled  "  In  Col- 
ony Times,"  by  Albert  Ellsworth  Thomas,  '94,  and 
Henry  Ames  Barker,  '93.  Mr.  Barker  directed  and  pro- 
duced "In  Colony  Times,"  and  designed  the  scenery 
for  the  production.  The  casts  of  the  two  plays  were 
made  up  in  greater  part  from  the  membership  of  the 
two  draniatic  societies  in  the  University,  the  "  Sock  and 
Buskin  "  and  the  "  Komians,"  and  from  **  The  Players' 
Club,"  of  Providence. 

" The  Provoked  Husband,  or  a  Journey  to  London" 
was  produced  in  Newport  in  1 761  by  a  company  under 
the  direction  of  David  Douglas,  and  was  said  to  be 
the  first  play  performed  in  New  England  by  profes- 
sional actors.  "  In  Colony  Times"  essayed  to  depict  the 
conflict  over  theatrical  performances  which  raged  in 
Rhode  Island  at  about  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the 
University,  a  conflict  resulting  in  a  statute  which  ef- 
fectively barred  play-acting  in  colony  and  state  for  a 
long  period.  Mr.  Douglas  and  his  company,  according 
to  tradition,  came  to  Providence  in  the  summer  of  1 762, 
and  the  setting  of  the  first  act  presented  a  part  of  the 
Providence  of  that  day,  reproduced  with  considerable 
fidelity,  for  many  of  the  buildings  shown  were  accu- 
rately located  by  the  study  of  maps  and  histories  of  the 

n  "9:1 


Brown  University- 
times.  The  second  act  showed  the  interiorof  the  theatre, 
called  the  "Histrionic  Academy,"  and  adapted  from  a 
cow-barn,  with  hay-mows  turned  into  stage-boxes, and 
rude  benches  installed  in  the  pit,  and  all  occupied  by 
spectators  with  varying  interests.  On  the  smaller  stage, 
set  back  from  the  proscenium  arch  of  the  real  theatre, 
was  presented  " The  Provoked  Husband."'*  In  Colony 
Times"  was  made  up  of  both  fact  and  fancy.  John 
Brown's  connection  with  the  incidents  depicted  is  said  to 
be  a  matter  of  record.  The  Reverend  Sepulchre  White 
may  well  have  had  his  prototype.  Dramatic  critics  have 
expressed  approval  of  the  play  within  a  play,  portray- 
ing as  it  did,  a  little  in  the  fashion  of  the  old  chronicle- 
histories,  the  times,  the  place,  and  the  men  and  women 
of  a  century  and  a  half  ago. 

The  cast  of  "In  Colony  Times"  was  as  follows: 


Citizeiis  of  Providence 
opposed  to  the  intro- 
duction of  Stage  Plays 


The  Reverend  Sepulchre  White,  of  the  Newlight 

Church  of  Providence 
Barzillai  Graves 
EusHA  Richmond 
Samuel  Jenks 
Edward  Winsor 
Daniel  Mitchell 
Tom  Perkins,  the  Town  Crier 
Paul  Tew,  High  Sheriff  of  Providence  County 
Hon.  John  Arnold,  a  colonial  legislator 
Mr.  Morris,  a  member  of  Mr.  Douglas's  Company  Adams  T.  Rice 
Captain  Esek  Hopkins     'I  fJohn  Sweetland 


Charles  C.  Remington 
Albert  B.  Johnson 
Stephen  Waterman 
Lawrence  H.  Rich 
Edward  C.  Bixby 
Alonzo  WiUiams 
Marshall  B.  Martin 
Henry  A.  Barker 
G.  Denny  Moore 


Nicholas  Brown 
Joseph  Brown 
Moses  Brown 


Associates  in  business 
and  friends    of    the  ■ 
drama 


W.  R.  Burwell 
Paul  Matteson 
William  C.  Crolius,  Jr. 


John  Brown,  of  Nicholas  Brown  &  Co. ,  Merchants 

and  Ship-  Owners  of  Providence  Melvin  Sawin 

David  Douglas,  an  eminent  English  actor y  a 
friend  and  former  associate  of  David  Garrick     Thomas  Crosby,  Jr. 


[    120    ^ 


The  Celebration  Play 


Miss  Lucy  Hallam,  daui^/i/er  of  the  late  Lewis 

Hallam^  Esq.,  step-dmimhter  of  Mr.   Doug/as 

and  a  member  of  his  company 
RoGKR  McVicKAU,  a  young  planter  from  South 

County,  but  recently  returned  from  a  trip  to 

Virginia 

Hon.  Stephen  Hopkins,  recently  Governor  of 
Rhode  Island 

Captain  Abraham  Whipple,  a  bold  privateers- 
man,  Master  of  the  "  Charming  Polly** 

Isaiah  Dobbins 


Miss  Sarah  E.  Minchen 


William  Farnsworth 


John  Murdock 


Silas  Benson 
Mrs.  Benson 
The  Ticket  Man 
The  Usher 


Fi-anklin  E.  Edgecomb 
"1  rJ.  Lanson  Eddy 

\  Spectators  at  the  Play  \  Russell  M.  Wilson 


At  the  '■'' Histrionic 
Academy ' ' 

Sam,  negro  slave  at  Mr.  Merritt's 

Jim,  negro  slave  at  Governor  Hopkins's 

Mr.  Rollins 

Mrs.  Roluns  I     Visitors  come  from 

^T      T   r\  i     Boston  to  see  a  real 

Mr.  J.  QuiNCY  , 

Mrs.  J.  QuiNCY  I 

Mrs.  Mehitabel  Perkins,  the  Totvn  Crier's  Wife 

John  Merritt  "| 

Mrs,  Merritt  r 

Miss  Merritt  j 

Mrs.  Stephen  Hopkins    ^ 

Mrs.  Esek  Hopkins 

Mrs,  Abraham  Whipple 

Miss  Mary  Brown 

Ephraim  Whitman,  a  spectator 


A ''Box  Party" 


Members  of  another 
''  Box  Party'* 


iMiss  Laui-a  Webster 
r  Royal  Leith 
\Raymer  Weed  en 
Donald  Jackson 
Arthur  H.  Shepard 
Thomas  B.  Appleget 
Miss  Madeleine  Johnson 
Clarence  C,  Maxson 
Miss  Margaret  Morgan 
Mi-s.  Daniel  Webster 
(i.  Palmer  Barstow 
-|  Miss  Alice  Appleton 
VMiss  Margaret  Corey 
'Mrs.  John  Murdock 
Miss  Agnes  Brown 
Mrs.  L.  H.  Meader 
Miss  Edna  Solinger 
Charles  H.  Hunkins 
Chauncey  Langdon 


Messenger  yVom  the  Colony  House 

Friends  and  followers  of  the  Brown- Hopkins  faction.  Citizens  opposed 
to  Stage  Plays,  Members  of  the  Colonial  Assembly,  Sailors,  Candlemakers, 
etc. 

Other  Spectators  at  the  Play,  Citizens,  etc. :  Miss  M.  Appleton,  Miss  Louise 
Keach,  Mrs.  A,  B.  Johnson,  Miss  Anne  Taylor,  L.  H.  Meader,  Walter  Hay- 
ward,  Everard  Appleton,  Robert  Hamilton,  F.  Webster  Cook,  Henry  F, 
Drake,  Paul  Keough. 

The  cast  of  "The  Provoked  Husband,"  together 
with  the  cast  (in  parentheses)  of  the  original  company 


C  121  ] 


Brown  University 
'*in  the  order  of  their  appearance, 


of  Mr.  Douglas, 
was  as  follows: 

Lord  Townly 
Lady  Townly 

WiLUAMS 

Lady  Grace 

Mr.  Manly 

John  Moody 

Mrs.  Motherly 

Count  Basset 

Myrtuxa 

Lady  Wronghead 

Sir  Francis  Wronghead  {Mr.  Quelch) 

'Squire  Richard  {Master  Ji.  Hallam) 

Miss  Jenny  {Miss  Lucy  Hallam) 

Mrs.  Trusty  {Mrs.  Tremaine) 

Constable  {Mr.  Start) 


{Mr.  Lewis  Hallam  ^2  d) 

{Mrs.  Morris) 

{Mr.  Reed) 

{Mrs.  David  Douglas) 

{Mr.  David  Douglas) 

{Mr.  Morris) 

{Mrs.  Allyn) 

{Mr.  miyn) 

{Mrs.  Moore) 

{Mrs.  Crane) 


Chester  T.  Calder 
Mrs.  Guy  Strickler 
Harold  Jackson 
Mrs.  Royal  Leith 
Thomas  Crosby,  Jr. 
Frank  Brady 
Miss  Maud  Farnum 
Robert  T.  Burbank 
Mrs.  Dexter  Knight 
Miss  Helen  Gindele 
Robert  B.  Jones 
Paul  B.  Howland 
Miss  Sarah  E.  Minchen 
Miss  Maud  Tucker 
George  La  Roe 


The  Play-Bill  concluded  as  follows: 

Time:  August  25,  1762.  Place:  The  Village  of  Providence  in  New  England. 

Scenes 

Act  I.  Benefit  Street,  near  the  head  of  Gaol  I^ne.  The  recently  completed  Colony 
House  appears  on  the  right.  Mr.  Douglas's  "Histrionic  Academy,"  lately  trans- 
formed from  the  Percivals'  former  cow-bam,  is  diagonally  across  the  road.  The 
vacant  slope  of  Prospect  HlU  rises  above  the  "Academy."  The  Village  extends 
along  the  valley,  and  Weybosset  Point  is  seen  in  the  distance  across  the  broad 
waters  of  the  Great  Salt  River.  Late  aftemoon. 

Acts  II  and  III.  (Inclosing  the  Play  of  T/ie  Provoked  Husband.)  The  inte- 
rior of  the  ' '  Histrionic  Academy . ' '  Tlie  boxes  and  galleries  made  from  the  former 
hay-mows.  Tlie  stage  front  constructed  of  scenery  brought  from  Virginia.  On 
the  stage  during  tlie  performance  of  ' '  The  Provoked  Husband ' '  the  scenes  are 
as  follows:  Acts  i,  iii,  and  v.  At  Lord  Townly's.  Acts  ii  and  iv.  At  Mrs. 
Motlierly's.  In  Act  v,  curtain  is  dropped  to  indicate  a  lapse  of  time. 

Stage  Director,  Henry  A.  Barker.  Stage  Manager,  Adams  T.  Rice.  Special 
scenery,  from  designs  and  scale  models  by  Henry  A.  Barker,  is  painted  by  Charles 
G.  Holzapfel  and  constructed  by  Henry  W.  Lester.  Other  scenery,  lighting 
effects,  etc.,  from  "The  Players'  Club."  Properties  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Daniel 
Webster. 

Historical  notes,  appended  to  the  Play-Bill,  were  in 
substance  as  follows: 

[     122    ] 


The  Celebration  Play- 
David  Douglas  was  a  gentleman  by  birth  and  fortune,  who  emigrated  to 
Jamaica  about  the  year  1750.  Hither  Lewis  Hallam  brought  a  company  of 
comedians  aftera  failure  in  the  American  colonies.  Here  Douglas jointxl  him, 
and  after  the  death  of  Hallam,  married  his  widow.  With  her  and  the  rest  of 
the  comixmy,  he  visited  the  colonies  in  1758,  where  they  continued  to  act 
until  the  theatres  were  closed  in  1774.  Thereafter  he  retunied  to  Jamaica, 
was  appointed  one  of  the  King's  judges,  and  died  univei'sally  respected.  Mrs. 
Douglas,  who  had  been  a  leading  actress  in  London  when  Mi-s.  Hallam,  came 
with  her  husband  to  Virginia  in  1752  and  made  her  debut  at  Williamsburg 
as  Portia  in  the  "  Merchant  of  Venice."  She  was  much  admired,  and  Mr. 
Dunlap  in  his  "History  of  the  American  Stage  "  says  that  in  his  youth  he  had 
heard  old  ladies  of  Perth  Amboy  speak  almost  in  raptures  of  her  beauty  and 
grace,  and  especially  of  the  pathos  of  her  representation  of  Jane  Shore.  She 
retired  from  the  stage  in  1  769,  and  died  in  Philadelphia  in  1 773.  Mr.  Hallam, 
the  2d,  made  his  first  appearance  upon  any  stage  on  the  night  of  the  first 
performance  of  his  father's  company  in  America,  when  twelve  years  old.  He 
had  but  one  line  to  speak,  was  panic-struck,  and  retired  in  tears.  He  after- 
wards became  an  accomplished  actor,  and  in  1767  he  was  leading  man  in 
the  company.  After  the  Revolution  he  was  a  manager  in  most  of  the  theatres 
of  the  country.  Mr.  Morris  played  the  "  Old  Men  "  parts.  In  1 797,  being  the 
oldest  actor  on  the  American  stage,  he  was  still  upon  the  boaixls,  and  at  that 
time  communicated  to  Mr.  John  Barnard  the  particular  of  the  introduction 
of  the  drama  into  the  New  World.  The  other  performed  in  Mr.  Douglas's 
company  included  Messi-s.  Allyn,  Quelch,Tomlinson,  Sturt,  Reed,  and  Tre- 
maine.  Master  A.  Hallam,  Mesdames  Morris,  Crane,  Allyn,  Moore,  and 
Miss  Hallam  ;  all  "selected  for  their  talents  and  moral  worth,  and  their  be- 
haviour justified  their  reputation."  It  is  believed  that  this  venture  of  the 
Douglas  company  in  Rhode  Island  was  the  only  appearance  of  a  professional 
company  in  New  England  until  1792,  when  theatres  were  opened  contrary 
to  law,  but  with  the  backing  of  public  approval  in  both  Boston  and  Provi- 
dence. The  Newport  "Mercury  "  said  of  Mr.  Douglas  and  his  company :  "  It 
ought  in  justice  to  be  told  that  the  work  of  these  players  has  been  irreproach- 
able ;  and  with  regard  to  their  skill  the  univei-sal  pleasure  and  satisfaction  they 
have  given  is  their  best  and  most  honourable  testimony.  The  character  they 
brought  from  the  Governor  and  Gentlemen  of  Virginia  has  been  fully  veri- 
fied, and  therefore  we  run  no  risk  in  pronouncing  that  'they  ai-e  capable  of 
entertaining  a  sensible  and  polite  audience.'  " 

Dr.  Johnson,  according  to  Boswell,  said  of  Goldsmith's  comedy,  the 
" Good-Natured  Man,"  produced  in  1  768,  that  it  was  the  best  comedy  that 
had  appeared  since  Colley  Gibber  produced  ' '  The  Provoked  Husband  ' '  some 
forty  yeare  before. 

A  "Notice  Extraordinary"  in  the  shape  of  a  hand- 

C    123    ] 


Brown  University 

bill,  purporting  to  be  a  copy  of  the  original  announce- 
ment of  "The  Provoked  Husband,"  and  printed  in 
archaic  form,  was  distributed  among  the  audience  and 
gave  an  air  of  verisimilitude  to  the  performance.  This 
announcement  set  forth  that 

"Mr.  David  Douglas,  late  of  London^  most  humbly  desires  to  make  the 
following-  announcement  to  the  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Town  of  Provi- 
dence !  At  the  Magnificent  Institution  known  as  the  Providence  Histrionic 
Academy  (lately  fitted  up  for  this  especial  purpose  on  Benefit  Street  at  the 
head  of  Gaol  Lane)  will  be  shown  on  Monday,  August  25,1 762,  A  Moral 
Dialogue  Portraying  the  Evils  of  Unbridled  Ambition  that  is  not  Supported 
by  Moral  Purpose,  and  the  Unfortunate  Results  of  Wifely  Disobedience  of 
a  Wise  and  Indulgent  Spouse.  The  Whole  Composed  and  Written  for  the 
Improvement  of  Morals  and  Benefit  of  Family  Life  by  Sir  J.  Van  Brugh 
and  C.  Gibber,  Esq.  and  Humbly  Portrayed  for  the  Edification  of  the  People 
of  New  England,  by  a  Worthy  Company  of  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  from 
England,  who  have  Performed  the  Same  in  London  by  Favour  of  His  Royal 
Highness  King  George  the  Third  and  have  but  lately  arrived  from  Virginia, 
where  they  have  repeated  it  many  times  with  the  Esteemed  Patronage  of  the 
Governor  and  Most  Enlightened  Residents  of  that  Colony," 

Then  followed  the  "Title  of  this  Useful  Dialogue," 
and  the  cast,  with  descriptions  of  the  characters  and 
a  poetical  tag  to  each.  A  "  Further  Announcement"  of 
further  like  entertainments,  etc.,  concluded  thus: 

"  N .  B .  Complaints  having  been  made  that  a  number  of  Gentlemen  crowd 
the  stage  and  very  much  interrupt  the  performances,  and  as  it  is  impossible 
the  company  should  do  that  justice  to  their  parts  they  otherwise  would,  it 
will  be  taken  as  a  particular  favour  if  the  Gentlemen  give  us  the  entire  use 
of  the  stage.  D.  Douglas." 

This  "Notice  Extraordinary"  bore  the  legend, 
"  Printed  by  Wm.  Goddard,  at  his  New  Printing  Shop 
in  Gaol  Lane,  above  Towne  Street  in  Providence."  An 
historical  note  on  the  play-bill  stated  that  "The  first 
printing  press  established  in  Providence  was  that  of 
William  Goddard  in  Gaol  Lane  in  the  summer  of  1 762, 
and  its  first  productions  are  stated  to  have  been  the 
play-bills  of  the  Douglas  Company." 

[   124  ] 


The  Celebration  Play 

The  audience  at  this,  the  initial  performance,  was 
composed  chiefly  of  members  of  the  University  and  of 
guests  of  the  University  in  Providence  and  vicinity.  A 
second  performance  was  given  on  October  1 3 ,  for  the 
alumni  of  the  University ;  and  a  third  on  October  14,  for 
delegates  and  invited  guests  from  without  the  city  and 
their  hosts  and  hostesses. 


C  125  ] 


J 


The  Early  Years  of 

Brown  University 

ON  Tuesday,  thirteenth  October,  at  half  after  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  anniversary  exercises, 
at  which  President  Faunce  presided,  were  held  in  the 
First  Baptist  Church  at  Warren,  Rhode  Island,  in  rec- 
ognition of  the  temporary  location  ( 1 764-1 770 )  in  that 
town  of  the  University  at  its  foundation.  The  order  of 
exercises  was  as  follows:  An  organ  recital  was  given 
by  Miss  Frances  S.  Burnham ,  the  organist  of  the  church, 
followed  by  the  singing  by  the  church  choir  of  the 
anthem,  by  Dudley  Buck,"  We  Praise  Thee,  O  Lord." 
Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Hubbard  Spal- 
ding, D.D., of  the  class  of  1865.  A  selection  on  the  violin 
was  then  rendered  by  Miss  Ella  Beatrice  Ball.  The  Rev. 
Herman  W.  Watjen,  D.D.,  the  pastor  of  the  church, 
in  an  address  of  welcome,  said: 

WE  are  exceedingly  glad  to-day  that  Brown  Uni- 
versity had  its  beginning  in  Warren.  It  is  true 
that  the  church  did  not  originate  the  college,  nor  did  the 
college  establish  the  church;  both  were  independent 
conceptions  and  each  would  have  been  realized  in  due 
time,  the  church  here  and  the  college  somewhere,  for 
the  necessity  of  a  school  for  the  higher  branches  of  edu- 
cation that  should  be  free  from  ecclesiastical  interfer- 
ence was  keenly  felt  by  our  Baptist  forefathers.  That 
the  college  was  first  established  in  Warren  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  here  conditions  were  just  right:  the  people 
were  mostly  Baptists,  tolerant,  magnanimous,  and  lov- 
ers of  an  educated  ministry,  due  largely  to  the  influence 
of  John  Miles  and  his  successors,  who  had  permeated 

C    126   ] 


Earlv  Years  of  Brown  University 

this  section  of  the  country  with  hic^h  scholarly  ideals. 
Furthermore,  here  a  church  was  about  to  be  organized ; 
a  site,  which  is  the  highest  in  the  town,  had  been  pur- 
chased (timber  for  the  meeting-house  was  being  cut) ; 
consequently,  when  the  idea  of  establishing  a  college, 
whose  president  should  also  be  pastor  of  the  church, 
was  presented  to  those  about  to  organize,  it  was  heartily 
received,  and  Dr.  Manning,  who  had  been  selected  to 
inaugurate  this  liberal  seat  of  learning,  was  chosen  pas- 
tor of  the  church  in  i  764.  It  was  a  sad  disappointment 
to  the  church  when,  a  few  years  after,  it  was  called 
upon  to  part  with  Dr.  Manning,  who  felt  it  his  duty  to 
go  with  the  college  when  it  was  removed  to  Providence. 
However,  the  college  soon  repaid  the  church  in  giving 
to  it,  as  its  second  pastor,  the  valedictorian  of  the  first 
class,  the  Rev.  CharlesThompson.  From  that  day  to  this 
the  church  has  not  ceased  to  take  a  wami  interest  in 
the  prosperity  o(  the  college,  and  it  is  with  pride  that 
we  inform  visitors  to  the  town  that  here  is  the  place 
where  Brown  University  had  its  beginning.  We  are 
glad,  therefore,  that  we  can  share  in  this  great  celebra- 
tion, and  we  bid  you,  President  Faunce,  Dr.  Keen,  dele- 
gates, and  visitors,  a  hearty  welcome. 

President  Faunce  made  an  appropriate  response  to 
these  words  of  greeting. 

The  following  address  was  then  delivered  on  "The 
Early  Years  of  Brown  University  (1764-1770),"  by 
Williain  Williams  Keen,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  class  of 
1859: 

IXFAXCYalways  appeals  to  us.  The  confiding  help- 
lessness of  a  young  life  arouses  our  chivalry.  The 
many  and  constant  perils  besetting  especially  its  early 

:  >27  D 


Brown  University 

years  excite  our  sympathy.  The  splendid  possibilities 
enwrapped  in  it  kindle  our  imagination.  If  we  hve  long 
enough  to  see  its  weakness  change  to  strength;  its  abili- 
ties develop;  its  character  unfold,  and  its  influence  grow 
so  that  it  becomes  a  power  in  the  land,  well  may  we 
rejoice  over  the  strong  man  that  he  is,  and  review  with 
absorbing  interest  the  early  days  of  the  child  that  he 
was.  This  is  my  pleasant  task  to-day  —  to  recount  the 
history  of  the  first  six  years  in  the  life  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity. 

It  is  peculiarly  congenial  to  me,  for  in  1 762  the  "  first 
mover  "  in  the  enterprise,  as  he  rightly  calls  himself, 
was  Morgan  Edwards,  the  pastor  of  my  own  church, 
the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Philadelphia.  The  first  stu- 
dent of  the  University,  William  Rogers,  became  pastor 
of  my  own  church,  and  married  my  grandparents  in 
1788. In  i79oThomasUstick,ofthe  third  class ( 1771 ), 
while  our  pastor,  baptized  my  grandfather.  Henry  Hol- 
combe,  of  the  class  of  1 800  (  hon. ) ,  while  pastor  of  our 
church ,  m  arried  my  parents  in  1 8  2  3 .  William  T.  Brantly , 
of  the  class  of  1831  (hon.),  another  pastor  of  our 
church,  baptized  my  parents  in  that  same  year.  George 
Dana  Boardman,of  the  class  of  1852,  and  George  H. 
Ferris,  of  the  class  of  1891 ,  have  been  my  pastors  and 
warm  personal  friends. 

In  Brown  University  I  obtained  my  own  education 
and  inspiration,  for  which  I  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  that 
I  can  never  repay.  Up  College  Hill  fifty-five  years 
ago  proudly  marched  my  classmates  and  I  singing  our 
"Song  of  Degrees."  Forty-one  years  ago  I  was  hon- 
ored by  an  election  to  the  Corporation  of  the  University. 
Since  then  I  have  taken  part  in  the  election  of  one  hun- 
dred members  of  the  Corporation,  including  all  (forty- 

[  128  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

six )  of  the  present  members  of  the  Corporation,  except- 
ing myself  and  one  other,  and  fifty-four  others  who  have 
all  passed  away  save  one,  who  resigned.  I  have  known 
all  its  presidents  save  the  first  three.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  I  feel  so  deeply  an  hereditary  and  personal  interest 
in  this  ancient  University.'^ 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  Professor  Bronson's  new  His- 
tory of  the  University  deals  at  length  with  the  charter, 
the  removal  to  Providence,  and  other  questions  which 
aroused  much  controversy  in  their  day,  and  that  our 
distinguished  alumnus,  Mr.  Justice  Hughes,  is  to  give 
the  principal  Historical  Address,  I  shall  only  make  allu- 
sions to  well-known  historical  events.  My  chief  endeavor 
will  be  to  set  forth  the  local  conditions,  manners,  and 
customs  existing  in  Warren  and  Providence  from  the 
beginning  of  the  University,  including  1 770,  the  date  of 
the  second  commencement.  I  include  this  second  com- 
mencement,although  it  was  held  in  Providence,  because 
practically  all  the  work  of  that  class  was  done  in  Warren. 

I  must  disarm  criticism,  and  especially  from  a  War- 
ren audience,  by  disclaiming  in  advance  any  desire  to 
expose  and  emphasize  the  faults  and  foibles  of  our  pre- 
decessors. But  conditions  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago  were  very  different  from  those  of  to-day,  and  they 
are  a  necessary  frame  for  the  picture.  I  have  drawn  a 
similar  picture  in  the  Bicentenary  History  of  my  own 
Philadelphia  church  without  offense,  and  I  feel  sure 
that  here,  too,  I  shall  find  the  same  friendly  forbear- 
ance. The  failings  which  I  mention  were  the  faults  of 
the  times.  The  individuals  were  only  a  few  examples 
out  of  many.  I  have  ventured  to  introduce  an  occasional 
touch  of  humor  to  lighten  what  would  otherwdse  be  a 
dull  recital  of  mere  historical  facts. 

C  129  3 


Brown  University 

The  nascent  years  of  the  University  were  filled  with 
the  increasing  mutterings  of  political  discontent  which 
soon  found  expression  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  and 
each  recurring  semi-centenary, strange  to  say, has  been 
similarly  marked  by  war.  Our  first,  in  1814,  occurred 
before  the  end  of  the  War  of  1812 ;  in  1864,  the  full 
century  took  place  during  the  bloody  crisis  of  the  Civil 
War.  In  both  these  emergencies  Brown  loyally  bore  its 
part.  In  1 914,  at  our  third  half-century , peace  in  Mexico 
is  still  trembling  in  the  balance,  and  war  has  "  raised  its 
horrid  front"  in  Europe  in  more  terrible  form  than  ever 
before  in  history.  Thank  God  that  the  healing  wounds 
of  my  own  guild  are  for  the  saving  of  human  lives  and 
not  for  their  destruction. 

Chronologically  Brown  ranks  the  seventh  of  the  nine 
colleges  established  prior  to  the  Revolution,  viz. : 


1.  Harvard  University  1636 

2.  College  of  William  and  Mary  1692 

3.  Yale  University  1701 

4.  University  of  Pennsylvania  1740 

5.  Princeton  University  1746 

6.  Columbia  University  1754 

7.  Brown  University  1764 

8.  Rutgers  College  1766 

9.  Dartmouth  College  1769 


Congregational 
Episcopalian 
Congregational 
Episcopalian 
Presbyterian 
Episcopalian 
Chiefly  Baptist 
Dutch  Reformed 


Episcopalian 

Morgan  Edwards,  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
of  Philadelphia,  the  "first  mover"  in  the  matter,  was 
born  in  Wales  in  1722.  He  was  **bred  a  Churchman," 
but  became  a  Baptist  in  1 738.  He  reached  Philadelphia 
May  23, 1 761 .  He  was  one  of  those  men  whose  arrival 
anywhere  meant  that  the  "wheels  began  to  go  round," 
and  things  began  to  be  done.  In  our  own  church  he 
started  the  "Minute  Book"  in  his  copperplate  hand- 

C  130  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

writing,  and  also  our  "  Marriage  Book /'which  contains 
a  complete  record  of  all  the  marriages  by  our  ministers 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  years.  He  was  very 
influential  in  the  Philadelphia  Baptist  Association  and 
other  church  activities.  When  moderator  of  the  Associa- 
tion he  was  not  only  the  first  to  propose,  in  1762,  the 
founding  of  a  college,  but  later  was  active  in  obtaining 
the  charter;  procured  more  funds  for  the  college  when 
it  sorely  needed  them  than  any  one  else;  served  on 
the  original  Board  of  Fellows  for  twenty-five  years; 
and  preached  at  the  first  commencement  ( 1769).  He 
published  "  Materials  towards  a  History  of  the  Ameri- 
can Baptists,"  four  volumes  of  a  series  of  twelve,  pro- 
jected but  never  completed. 

Most  fitting  is  it,  therefore,  that  our  Philadelphia 
alumni  will  honor  his  name  by  establishing  the  '*  Mor- 
gan Edwards  Fellowship"  by  a  gift  of  over  ^10,000 
on  this  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
University  which  owes  its  birth  to  him. 

Like  all  the  early  American  colleges,  Brown  arose 
especially  from  the  need  and  the  desire  for  an  educated 
ministry.  In  England,  out  of  two  hundred  Baptist  min- 
isters only  thirty  or  forty  could  read  the  Greek  Tes- 
tament, and  only  seven  or  eight  in  America  were  lib- 
erally educated.  Among  those  were  Morgan  Edwards 
and  James  Manning.  The  mass  of  the  Baptists  were  in- 
different or  hostile  to  ministerial  education.  '*The  Bap- 
tists of  the  Philadelphia  Association  had  long  since  taken 
the  lead  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  elevation  of  the 
character  and  dignity  of  the  denomination, and  their  in- 
fluence had  been  profoundly  felt  in  New  England  and 
the  South."  As  early  as  1 722  Rev.  Abel  Morgan,  in  that 
Association,  was  the  leader  in  a  movement  for  an  acad- 

[  131  ] 


z' 


Brown  University 

emy — a  proposal  that  failed  owing  to  Morgan's  death. 
In  1 756  the  Association  founded  the  academy  at  Hope- 
well, New  Jersey.  James  Manning,  Hezekiah  Smith, 
Samuel  Stillman,  Samuel  Jones,  and  John  Gano,  all  so 
actively  identified  with  the  founding  of  Brown ;  David 
Howell,  the  second  professor  at  Brown ;  and  Charles 
Thompson  and  William  Williams,  of  the  first  graduat- 
ing class,  were  all  educated  at  Hopewell  Academy. 

In  1 762  there  were  but  sixty  Baptist  churches  and 
only  five  thousand  members  in  all  the  colonies.  In  1 770, 
in  Rhode  Island,  the  books  used  in  the  schools  were  the 
Bible,  the  spelling  book,  and  the  primer.  "When  one 
had  learned  to  read,  write,  and  do  a  sum  in  the  rule 
of  three  he  was  fit  for  business."  So  vague  and  naive 
was  the  knowledge  of  geography  that  Rhode  Island 
was  once  described  as  located  '*in  the  West  Indies  in 
America."  The  minister  especially  needed  to  be  edu- 
cated, for  he  was  by  far  the  foremost  man  in  the  com- 
munity;  the  doctor  and  the  lawyer,  his  near  neighbors, 
yielding  him  the  pas. 

The  meticulous  exactness  of  theological  belief  which 
was  then  deemed  a  test  of  orthodoxy  is  shown,  for  ex- 
ample, in  a  circular  letter  preserved  among  the  archives 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Philadelphia,  which  be- 
gins thus: 

"  The  Church  of  Christ  meeting  in  Upperfreehold,  in 
the  County  of  Monmouth,  New  Jersey.  Holding  Eter- 
nal Election,  perticular  Redemption,  Irresistable  grace 
in  Effectual  Calling,  and  final  perseverance  in  grace, 
( also  the  Baptism  of  professing  Believers  only,  by  Im- 
mersion only,)"  etc. 

It  is  curious  that  "the  baptism  of  professing  be- 
lievers only"  and  the  method  "by  immersion  only" 

[  132  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

seem,  by  their  parenthetical  position,  to  be  quite  sub- 
ordinate to  the  other  theological  dogmas  announced  in 
this  paragraph.  On  the  other  hand,  orthodox  conduct 
was  less  common.  Tustin  notes  the  painful  fact  that  in 
the  first  eighty  years  of  the  life  of  the  Warren  church 
ten  per  cent  of  the  whole  membership  had  been  per- 
manently excluded.  In  the  History  of  my  own  church 
( 1698-1898 )  I  also  noted  the  large  number  of  exclu- 
sions of  both  men  and  women  for  drunkenness,  pro- 
fanity,  and  immorality.  In  Warren,  in  1 769,  to  curb  pro- 
fanity and  other  evil  practices,  the  town  ordered  two 
pillories,  one  of  which  at  least  was  set  up  on  the  side- 
walk, so  that  no  one  could  miss  seeing  it  and  its  occu- 
pant. 

Conditions  were  very  primitive.  In  1775  there  were 
only  thirty-seven  newspapers  in  the  whole  country: 
fourteen  in  New  England,  four  in  New  York,  nine  in 
Pennsylvania,  leaving  only  ten  for  all  the  other  colo- 
nies. Women  still  rode  on  pillions.  Letters  were  often 
sent  by  hand  even  after  the  post-office  passed  into 
Franklin's  charge;  they  were  "to  be  left  at  Mr.  West- 
cott's,"  or  "  care  of  John  Holmes  at  the  Sign  of  George 
Washington,"  a  tavern,  for  the  recipient.  It  was  so  well 
known  that  the  post-riders  read  the  letters  that,  for  a 
long  time  after  the  Revolution,  letters  were  often  writ- 
ten in  cipher. 

When  Morgan  Edwards  first  proposed  a  college  he 
was  laughed  at  as  a  visionary,  but  after  the  college  was 
actually  started,  the  Philadelphia  Association,  in  1764, 
1774,  and  1782  warmly  recommended  it  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  Baptist  churches.  They  appealed  not  only 
to  Baptists,  but "  to  all  the  friends  of  literature  in  every 
denomination." 


Brown  University 

Moreover,  the  Association  aided  early  Philadelphia 
students.  In  i  767  a  Mrs.  Hobbs  left  a  legacy  of  =£350 
to  the  Association,  and  immediately  the  Association 
directed  that  =^14  should  be  paid  toward  the  educa- 
tion of  Charles  Thompson,  of  the  class  of  1 769,  the  sec- 
ond pastor  of  the  Warren  church.  Usually  ( 1 767, 1 769, 
1771,  1773)  the  grant  was  made  on  condition  that 
the  beneficiary  give  a  frank,  but  unusual,  bond  "to  re- 
turn the  money  in  case  the  Association  should  be  dis- 
appointed in  him !"  In  1769  the  sum  of  ^14  was  voted 
for  Thomas  Ustick,  of  the  class  of  1 771 .  The  next  year 
application  was  made  by  both  Ustick  and  Vanhorn,  but 
Vanhorn  was  preferred. 

After  carefully  weighing  the  desirability  of  various 
colonies,  especially  South  Carolina  and  Rhode  Island, 
as  a  location  for  the  proposed  college,  the  latter  was  se- 
lected on  account  of  the  absolute  liberty  of  conscience 
which  obtained  there,  and  of  the  large  proportion  of 
Baptists  in  the  colony  and  in  its  government. 

The  charter  was  not  obtained  "in  February,  17^4," 
as  is  often  stated.  The  General  Assembly,  it  is  true,  met 
by  adjournment  in  East  Greenwich  upon  "the  last 
Monday  of  February,  1 764,"  but  the  charter  passed  the 
lower  house  on  March  2,  the  upper  house  on  March 
3,  1764,  and  was  ordered  to  be  signed,  sealed,  and 
registered.  The  governor  did  not  actually  sign  it  until 
October  24, 1 765.  Meantime,  however,  the  Corporation 
met  in  Newport  on  September  5, 1764,  and  again  on 
September  4, 1 765.  On  this  date  ( before  the  governor 
had  actually  signed  the  charter)  the  President  had  been 
elected,  and  a  Faculty,  consisting  solely  of  the  Presi- 
dent, had  been  chosen  to  guide  the  student  body  which 
had  already  existed  for  twenty-four  hours  in  the  person 

C  134  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

of  William  Rogers,  a  boy  fourteen  years  of  age.  The 
President  was  James  Manning,  who  had  graduated  at 
Princeton  three  years  before  ( 1 762  ),  and  was  not  yet 
twenty-seven  years  of  age. 

The  fundamental  liberality  of  the  charter,  which, 
though  written  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
breathes  the  spirit  of  the  twentieth,  is  shown  in  a  num- 
ber of  its  provisions:  ( 1  )  The  inclusion  of  four  denomi- 
nations, instead  of  making  the  Corporation  consist  only 
of  Baptists.  The  prescribing  of  the  exact  number  allotted 
to  each  denomination  was  evidently  intended  not  only 
to  prevent  the  non-Baptists  from  ousting  the  Baptists, 
but  also  to  prevent  any  effort  of  the  Baptists  to  oust  the 
non-Baptists,  either  of  which  might  easily  have  been 
feared  in  that  age  of  bitter  sectarianism.  ( 2 )  By  what 
is  quite  as  striking,  the  opening  of  the  positions  of  all 
grades  of  teachers,  with  the  sole  exception  of  the  Presi- 
dent, to  all  denominations,  and  the  absolute  and  total 
exclusion  of  any  religious  test.  ( 3 )  By  what,  as  Pro- 
fessor Bronson  has  pointed  out,  is  an  especially  marked 
peculiarity  of  Brown,  the  exclusion  from  the  courses 
of  pjibiic  instruction  of  all  teaching  of  "sectarian  dif- 
ferences of  opinion,"  and  that  "youth  of  all  religious 
denominations"  shall  be  on  an  equal  footing  in  every 
respect. 

Specific  instances  showing  how  Brown  lived  up  to 
these  fine  promises  are  most  instructive.  September  6, 
1 770,  the  Corporation  voted  "  that  the  children  of  Jews 
may  be  admitted  into  this  Institution  and  entirely  enjoy 
the  freedom  of  their  religion  without  any  constraint  or 
imposition  whatever."  In  1774  the  Seventh  Day  Bap- 
tists were  exempted  from  the  law  requiring  attendance 
at  church  on  Sunday.  The  Quakers  were  also  exempted 

C    ^S5   ] 


Brown  University 

from  the  law  which  prohibited  the  students  from  wear- 
ing their  hats  within  the  college  walls. 

In  1 769  the  Faculty  was  enlarged  by  the  addition 
of  David  Howell  (already  for  three  years  a  tutor) 
as  *'  Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy."  He  taught  until 
the  war  closed  the  college.  The  third  member  of  the 
Faculty  was  Joseph  Brown,  Howell's  successor,  who 
resumed  the  teaching  of  Natural  Philosophy  in  1 784, 
shortly  after  the  war  ended.  The  fourth  was  the  cele- 
brated Benjamin  Waterhouse,  M.D.,  who  taught  Nat- 
ural History  from  1781  to  1791- 

Waterhouse  was  a  Newport  boy,  a  nephew  of  Dr. 
John  Fothergill,  of  London,  who,  as  will  soon  be  seen, 
was  an  early  benefactor  of  the  college  through  Mor- 
gan Edwards.  Waterhouse  was  perhaps  the  most  highly 
educated  physician  of  his  day  in  this  country.  With 
John  Warren  and  Aaron  Dexter  he  founded  the  Har- 
vard Medical  School  in  1 782-83,  and  was  noted  as  the 
first  to  introduce  vaccination  into  America.  He  served 
on  the  Board  of  Fellows  of  Brown  for  thirteen  years 

(1782-95). 

This  insistence  on  Science  was  in  accordance  with 
the  charter,  which  decreed  that  "  the  public  teaching 
shall  in  general  respect  the  sciences.  "The  scientific  sub- 
jects actually  taught  are  not  exactly  known,  but  proba- 
bly they  differed  somewhat,  by  subtraction,  from  those 
taught  in  1783  (when  "science"  included  geography, 
arithmetic,  algebra,  Euclid,  trigonometry,  surveying, 
navigation,  and  astronomy ), and  by  addition  also, under 
Waterhouse  at  least.  At  that  time  the  college  spent 
about  ^700  "lawful  money  "on  the  philosophical  appa- 
ratus and  the  library,  one-half  of  which  was  given  by 
John  Brown.  Even  with  this  addition,  however,  the  phi- 

C  136  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

losophical  and  astronomical  apparatus  could  hardly 
have  been  compared  with  the  fine  collections  at  Har- 
vard (destroyed  by  fire  in  1764),  Yale,  and  especially 
at  William  and  Mary. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Corporation  was  held  on 
Wednesday,  September  5,  1764,  in  Newport.  Of  the 
forty-seven  members  of  the  Corporation  named  in  the 
charter  (one  place  was  purposely  left  vacant  for  the 
future  President),  only  twenty-eight  had  qualified.  Of 
the  twenty-eight,  twenty-four  were  present;  certainly 
a  very  good  attendance,  especially  in  view  of  the  then 
difficulties  of  travel.  They  were  a  distinguished  com- 
pany, headed  by  the  Chancellor,  Hon.  Stephen  Hop- 
kins, chief  justice,  governor,  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. One-fourth  were  university  men:  from  Harvard 
four,  from  Yale  two,  from  Princeton  one. 

The  most  urgent  need  was  money  to  meet  immediate 
expenses.  Accordingly  sixty-nine  gentlemen  were  ap- 
pointed to  receive  subscriptions,  not  only  in  the  New 
England  colonies, but "  in  the  Western  part  of  this  Con- 
tinent." It  is  curious  at  this  day  to  find  that  the  "wild 
and  woolly  West"  of  1764  included  Baltimore,  Phila- 
delphia, and  New  York.  Twenty-three  other  places 
were  specified  by  name.  With  prophetic  vision.  Oyster 
Bay  was  one. 

Rev.  Hezekiah  Smith,  of  Haverhill,  collected  in  1 769 
about  $2500  in  the  southern  colonies,  but  the  largest 
amount  was  obtained  by  Morgan  Edwards. 

On  February  2,  1767,  I  find  the  following  note  in 
the  records  of  our  Philadelphia  church:  "  Mr.  Edwards 
applied  to  the  Church  for  leave  to  go  to  Europe  to  exe- 
cute a  commission  he  hath  received  from  the  College 

C  137  ] 


Brown  University 

in  Rhode  Island;  he  also  informed  the  Church  that  he 
had  wrote  to  twelve  ministers  to  supply  his  place  in  his 
absence,  ten  of  whom  had  agreed  to  his  proposal;  each 
to  officiate  a  month  in  his  turn,  and  to  be  allowed  each 
five  pounds  a  month  out  of  Mr.  Edwards's  salary.  The 
Church  granted  Mr.  Edwards  leave  to  go  to  Europe 
and  wish  him  all  success."  He  carried  with  him  a  let- 
ter, undated, but  evidently  written  early  in  1767, signed 
by  the  President  and  the  Chancellor.  The  signature  of 
Stephen  Hopkins  at  this  date  was  quite  firm.  Two  years 
later  the  hnes  began  to  waver,  and  in  1  776,  nine  years 
before  his  death,  his  well-known  signature  of  the  Decla- 
ration was  extremely  tremulous. 

Edwards,  as  was  his  wont,  lost  no  time.  ''Detto, 
fatto"  was  his  motto.  Two  weeks  after  this  vote  he 
sailed,  and  in  less  than  two  years  had  collected  ^888 
105.  ^d.  sterling.  As  he  says,  he  *' succeeded  pretty  well 
considering  how  angry  the  Mother  country  then  was 
with  the  Colonies  for  opposing  the  Stamp  Act." 

The  manuscript  list  of  the  subscribers  is  in  our  ar- 
chives. The  largest  subscribers  were  the  First  and  Sec- 
ond Presbyterian  Churches  in  Belfast  {£13  9s.  od.  and 
£\^  15s.  4<d. ).  It  is  interesting  to  note  among  the  sub- 
scribers Thomas  Penn,  £20,  Benjamin  Franklin,  ^10, 
Thomas  Hollis,  =£10,  Dr.  John  Fothergill, esteemed  by 
all  doctors,  £5  5s.  The  lowest  amounts  named  are  one 
and  two  shillings. 

Encouraged  by  these  collections,  the  permanent  lo- 
cation of  the  college  and  the  erection  of  suitable  build- 
ings were  now  actively  discussed.  After  much  rivalry 
and  not  a  little  hard  feeling,  the  matter  was  finally  set- 
tled. The  college  and  Manning  both  moved  to  Provi- 
dence in  May,  1770. 

C  138  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

Why  had  Httle  Warren  ever  been  selected  as  the  first 
home  of  the  college? 

The  town  was  named  after  Admiral  Sir  Peter  War- 
ren, who  had  cleared  the  coast  of  French  ships  of  war 
and  thus  rendered  a  great  service  to  Warren,  which  de- 
pended chiefly  on  its  maritime  commerce.  In  1 746  it  had 
been  definitely  assigned  by  the  King  in  Council  to  Rhode 
Island  instead  of  to  Massachusetts.  Its  population  even 
in  1 770  was  only  979,  while  Providence  had  2958,  and 
Newport  could  boast  of  1 1 ,000.  Newport  was  the  lead- 
ing town  in  Rhode  Island  in  commerce  and  culture  as 
well  as  in  inhabitants,  was  next  in  size  to  Boston,  and 
had  two  Baptist  churches. 

Swansea  was  a  small  inland  town  about  three  miles 
from  Warren.  Here  was  a  Baptist  Church,  founded  for 
over  a  century  ( 1663).  The  Swansea,  the  two  New- 
port, and  the  Providence  Baptist  churches  were  all  sup- 
plied with  pastors.  In  Warren  there  were  about  sixty 
Baptists.  They  were  not  organized  into  a  church,  but 
evidently  the  desire  for  such  a  church  was  in  their  hearts, 
and  they  had  already  taken  active  steps  towards  found- 
ing it  before  the  plan  for  a  college  was  first  mooted  in 
Philadelphia.  This  intention  to  found  a  separate  church 
in  Warren  was  doubtless  known  to  the  Philadelphia 
Baptists.  It  was  therefore  very  natural,  as  the  projected 
college  had  absolutely  no  funds,  that,  whatever  might 
be  its  permanent  site,  it  should  begin  in  Warren,  where 
the  president  could  be  supported  by  his  salary  as  min- 
ister of  the  church  and  also  by  opening  a  Latin  school. 

The  two  enterprises — the  church  and  the  college — 
went  hand  in  hand.  The  first  step  had  to  do  with  the 
erection  of  the  meeting-house ;  the  second  and  third  with 
the  college ;  the  next  two  with  the  church ;  the  sixth  with 

[    ^S9   ] 


Brown  University 

the  college;  the  seventh  with  both  church  and  college; 
the  eighth  with  the  college;  the  ninth  to  the  twelfth  with 
the  church,  and  finally  the  thirteenth  with  the  college. 

The  chronological  order  of  events  in  detail  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

1st.  February,  1762.  The  collection  of  building  ma- 
terials for  a  "  Meeten  house"  was  begun,  as  shown  by 
bills  in  the  archives  of  the  Warren  church.  This  was 
eight  months  before  Morgan  Edwards  proposed  that  a 
college  should  be  founded, a  year  and  eight  months  be- 
fore the  first  payment  on  the  lot  was  made,  a  year  and 
nine  months  before  the  Warren  church  was  constituted, 
and  almost  three  years  before  the  date  of  the  deed  for 
the  lot.  Surely  they  were  "forehanded." 

2d.  October,  1762.  In  the  Philadelphia  Baptist  Asso- 
ciation, the  only  one  then  in  existence,  Morgan  Ed- 
wards first  mooted  the  question  of  a  college. 

3d.  July,  1 763.  James  Manning,  representing  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Philadelphia  Association,  visited  Newport 
on  his  way  to  Halifax,  and  took  the  first  definite  steps 
toward  a  charter  for  the  proposed  college. 

4^/i.  October  21,1763.  The  first  payment  to  the 
"widow  Rachel  Luen  for  a  Lot  of  Land  for  to  set 
meten  house  on."  The  deed  for  this  lot  is  dated  Janu- 
ary 29,1 765. The  lot  was  not  fully  paid  for  until  1783, 
twenty  years  after  the  first  payment  and  eighteen  years 
after  the  date  of  the  deed. 

5th.  February  17,  1764.  "The  Congregation"  (ob- 
serve it  is  not  "the  Church")  "at  Warren  gave  Rev. 
James  Manning  a  call  to  come  over  from  New  Jersey 
and  settle  amongst  them." 

6th.  March  2  and  3, 1764.  The  charter  of  the  college 
was  granted. 

[  140  3 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

^th.  April  13  or  14, 1764.  James  and  Mrs.  Manning 
(they  had  been  married  March  23,  1763)  arrived  at 
Warren.  He  began  at  once  to  preach  to  the  as  yet 
unorganized  Baptists  and  also  opened  a  Latin  school. 

Sth.  September  5, 1764.  First  meeting  of  the  Corpo- 
ration of  the  college. 

Qth.  September,  1764.  It  was  agreed  to  draw  up  a 
covenant  and  organize  a  church. 

\oth.  October  4,  1764.  The  Swansea  church  dis- 
missed twenty-five  members  to  the  proposed  Warren 
church. 

nth.  November  15,1 764.  The  Warren  church  was 
solemnly  constituted  with  fifty-eight  members,  all  of 
whom  assented  to  the  covenant  by  a  rising  vote. 

Three  of  the  members  then  presented  a  formal  call 
from  the  now  organized  "Church"  to  Mr.  Manning. 
He  accepted,  and  was  at  once  installed.  The  provision 
for  his  salary  is  naively  indefinite:  "As  we  are  of  opin- 
ion that  they  who  preach  the  Gospel  should  live  by 
the  Gospel  we  do  here  declare  our  intention  to  render 
your  life  as  happy  as  possible  by  our  brotherly  conduct 
towards  you  and  communicating  our  temporal  things  to 
your  necessities  so  long  as  God  .  .  .  shall  continue  us 
together."  Tustin  (pp.  121, 122)  says  that  the  church 
"appears  to  have  given  him  a  liberal  support." 

1 2 //z.  November  25,  1764.  Manning  was  dismissed 
from  the  Scotch  Plains  church.  New  Jersey,  to  the  War- 
ren church  "of  the  same  faith  and  order."  It  should  be 
observed,  however,  that  the  Scotch  Plains  church  still 
clung  to  the  "  Laying  on  of  Hands,"  whereas  the  War- 
ren church  in  its  original  covenant  boldly  and  expressly 
declared  "That  the  Imposition  or  Non-Imposition  of 
Hands  upon  believers  after  Baptism  is  not  essential  to 

c  141  i 


Brown  University- 
Church  Communion."  This  petty  controversy  was  a 
serious  bone  of  contention  between  the  "  Five  Princi- 
ple "and  the  "  Six  Principle  "Baptists,  and  later  involved 
Manning  and  the  Providence  church  in  trouble.  In  the 
Warren  records,  June  28, 1765,  is  a  charmingly  frank 
and  very  charitable  note  that  Sister  R.  B.  had  been"  bap- 
tized and  come  under  the  Imposition  of  Hands  and  has 
since  walked  circumspectly  human  frailties  excepted." 

isth.  September  4,  1765.  At  the  second  meeting  of 
the  Corporation,  again  held  in  Newport,  James  Man- 
ning was  formally  elected  President. 

Both  enterprises  were  now  completely  organized, 
with  James  Manning  at  the  head  of  each.  This  harmo- 
nious cooperation  continued  until  the  question  of  the 
permanent  location  of  the  college  arose.  For  the  details 
of  this  rather  violent  struggle  I  must  refer  you  to  Pro- 
fessor Bronson's  History.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  Provi- 
dence finally  won  the  day,  and  on  May  3, 1770,  Man- 
ning went  with  the  college  to  Providence. 

Let  us  now  look  at  a  few  details  of  conditions  at 
Warren  during  the  period  from  1764  to  1770. 

The  size  of  the  first  meeting-house  is  variously 
given.  In  a  subscription  list  of  1 765  it  is  described  as 
"  sixty  one  feat,  width  forty  fore  feat." This  would  seem 
to  be  the  most  reliable.  Tustin  says  it  was  about  forty- 
four  feet  square,  and  Guild,  following  Morgan  Ed- 
wards, says  it  was  forty-four  by  fifty-two  feet.  It  had 
pews,  galleries,  a  turret  containing  a  little  bell,  called 
the  "tobacco  bell,"  as  it  was  paid  for  by  this  means,  and 
a  porch.  The  pulpit  was  not  built  until  May,  1 765.  The 
"gallories"were  not  finished  nor  all  the  "pues"  placed 
possibly  until  1774,  for  on  February  3,  1772,  a  con- 
tract was  awarded  for  finishing  the  *'  gallories  "  and  for 

[   142  J 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

putting  in  thirty-six  "pues."  For  doing  this  work  the 
contractors  were  allowed  two  years. 

In  this  contract,  and  therefore  presumably  in  the  ear- 
lier ones,  the  contractors  were  given  the  right  to  sell 
the  pews.  On  April  24,  1765,  the  proprietors  of  the 
pews,  who  had  believed  that  the  total  sum  thus  real- 
ized would  be  sufficient  to  complete  the  building,  fear- 
ing that  it  would  not  be  enough,  agreed  that  if  this 
sum  was  insufficient  they  should  pay  proportionately 
such  sums  as  would  complete  it  or  forfeit  their  pews. 
This  "syndicate"  for  "underwriting"  the  entire  cost, 
as  we  might  now  call  it,  was  signed  by  twenty-three 
persons. 

There  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  stove.  In  Mor- 
gan Edwards's  various  volumes  the  presence  or  absence 
of  a  stove  in  almost  every  case  is  carefully  noted;  e.g., 
Pennepek  had  one,  but  the  Philadelphia  church  had 
not.  McMaster  thus  vividly  describes  the  situation  in  the 
winter: "  Not  a  meeting  house  was  warmed, not  a  chim- 
ney, not  a  fireplace,  not  a  stove  was  to  be  seen." 

The  Third  Church, Newport, is  described  by  Edwards 
as  having  pews,  galleries,  and  a  "  clock,"  the  only  men- 
tion I  have  seen  of  this  useful  monitor.  Usually  an  hour- 
glass was  on  the  pulpit,  and  its  third  turning  marked  the 
minister's  final  lap.  Possibly  in  Newport  they  thought 
that  the  more  aggressive  suggestiveness  of  the  clock, 
added  to  the  frigidity  of  the  air,  might  shorten  the  ser- 
mon by  at  least  one  turn  of  the  hourglass  in  very  cold 
weather.  One  minister,  says  McMaster, "  preached  in  a 
great  coat  and  mittens  and  complained  that  his  voice 
was  drowned  by  persons  stamping  .  .  .  their  feet  to 
keep  warm." 

For  Dr.  Manning  and  the  prospective  students  a  par- 

[   143  ] 


Brown  University 

sonage  had  to  be  built.This  was  a  large  building,  costing 
^2534  ijs. — an  apparently  formidable  sum,  but  Pro- 
fessor Bronson  informs  me  that  it  was  "old  tenor,"  and 
so  was  equivalent  to  only  about  $600.  Even  that  was 
a  large  sum  in  those  days. 

While  examining  the  old  bills  and  other  documents 
in  the  archives  of  the  Warren  church  I  chanced  upon 
some  orthographical  gems  which  I  must  share  with 
you.  Our  forbears,  who  luckily  escaped  the  many  birch- 
ings  visited  upon  their  descendants  by  Noah  Webster 
and  Lindley  Murray,  were  not  satisfied  with  the  dull 
uniformity  of  a  single  spelling, but  exhibited  the  vivacity 
which  accompanied  an  unexpected  and  often  startlingly 
variegated  orthography.  Contemporaneous  documents 
of  the  other  early  colleges  showed  an  equally  liberal 
charity.  If  political  independence  was  desirable,  why  not 
also  orthographical  independence  ?  If  "  Liberty  of  Un- 
licensed Printing  "  was  good  for  John  Milton,  why  was 
not  "Liberty  of  Unlicensed  Spelling"  good  for  John 
Gano.'^  Accordingly  they  cut  their  teeth,  as  it  were,  upon 
such  simple  beginnings  as  "winder  fraims,"  "dores," 
and  "meten  hous."  These  latter  provided  only  a  few 
possible  variants.  When  it  came  to  "  Parsonage,"  how- 
ever, they  found  a  rich  field  for  their  cooperative  fer- 
tility of  invention,  and  then  went  "ganz  los."  I  discov- 
ered thirteen  new,  but  all  different,  ways  of  spelling  this 
one  word ,  from  "  passeenage  "  to  "  posnag. " The  follow- 
ing will  suflfice:  "  parseenage,  parsnige,  pasanage,  pas- 
seage,  paisonnag,  parsinig,  pasneg  hous,  parsing  hous, 
personage,  personog,  pasonage,  posneg,  parsnig."Had 
I  made  a  thorough  search,  I  might  possibly  have  en- 
larged the  list  to  a  score,  unless  indeed  their  positive 
genius  in  cacography  had  exhausted  itself. 

[   144  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

Possibly  an  English  annex  to  the  "Latin  School" 
might  have  been  useful. 

The  prevalence  of  the  unwarranted  soft  "  g  "  is  even 
more  marked  in  a  long  itemized  memorandum  of  the 
losses  of  Rev.  Charles  Thompson,  of  the  class  of  1769 
( who  had  followed  Manning  in  the  pastorate  at  War- 
ren), for  his  effects  which  had  been  destroyed  when 
this  parsonage  and  the  church  were  burned  by  the  Brit- 
ish. Among  many  "go  as  you  please"  spellings  I  find 
one  mysterious  "black  gug"  and  two  "ginn  gugs." 
He  does  not  add  the  comment  "wore  some"  or  "half 
wore,"  as  he  does  to  his  shirts  and  "stockens." 

One  Martin  Luther,  however,  who  emulated  his 
namesake  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  overturning  es- 
tablished usages,  not  content  with  a  revolution  in  spell- 
ing, made  additional  assaults  upon  grammar  and  sobri- 
ety. In  a  bill  dated  July  3, 1 764,  he  provided  a  new  past 
participle  for  the  verb  "disburse."  It  reads: 

Disbusted  by  Martin  Luther  to  Wordes  bulding 
the  meeteing  hous 

960  feete  of  pine  hordes  £96. 

106  gallons  of  rum  £254. 

Eroors  excepted. 
Paid, 
Martin  Luther. 

It  is  perhaps  too  much  to  hope  that  there  were  no 
"Eroors"  in  conduct  as  well  as  in  the  account  which 
were  "excepted." 

The  members  had  not  only  to  wrestle  with  the  prob- 
lem of  how  to  spell  as  well  as  to  build  the  parsonage, 
but  also  how  to  finance  it,  for  it  differed  from  the  church 
in  not  having  any  pews  which  could  be  sold.  In  1767 
they  therefore  inaugurated  a  lottery  for  raising  £150 

C  145  n 


Brown  University 

"lawful  money  "  toward  finishing  the  parsonage  house, 
as  the  students  "  cannot  be  accommodated  in  said  house 
in  its  present  condition."  Those  who  bought  the  tickets 
were  very  properly  called  "adventurers."  To  us  such 
a  scheme,  especially  in  connection  with  a  church,  seems 
very  extraordinary.  But  at  this  time  in  England  as  well 
as  in  the  colonies,  and  in  Rhode  Island  during  exactly 
a  century  (from  1744  to  1844),  there  was  a  rage  for 
lotteries  for  almost  every  purpose — to  build  meeting- 
houses, wharves,  bridges  [e.g.,  the  old  Weybosset 
bridge  in  Providence),  for  opening  of  streets,  for  col- 
leges, etc.  Thus  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Providence 
in  1 774  asked  for  a  lottery  to  raise  ^2000 ;  in  1 830  and 
1837  there  were  two  lotteries  for  the  Rhode  Island 
Historical  Society ;  in  1 793  the  Corporation  of  Rhode 
Island  College  petitioned  the  General  Assembly  for  the 
grant  of  a  lottery  of  I4000  for  purchasing  Dr.  Forbes's 
orrery  and  other  articles  of  philosophical  apparatus  and 
for  the  college  library,  etc.;  in  1 796  another  was  asked 
by  Brown  University  for  $25,000,  and  in  1811  another 
for  $20,000.  Harvard  and  Princeton  also  were  aided  by 
lotteries. 

In  the  archives  of  the  Warren  church  is  the  full 
printed  proposal  for  such  a  lottery, dated  November  28, 
1 794, and  signed  by  our  old  friend  Martin  Luther  ( who 
had  "  disbusted"  certain  monies  for  the  meeting-house 
thirty  years  before)  and  two  others.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  Martin  Luther  and  his  fellow  members  would  have 
stoutly  maintained  as  a  theological  dogma  that "  ye  can- 
not serve  God  and  Mammon,"  but  when  it  came  to  the 
practical  work  of  building  a  new  meeting-house  to  re- 
place the  one  burned  by  the  British,  they  clearly  com- 
bined the  two, for  the  proposal  reads  as  follows:  "As 

c  146  :\ 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

this  lottery  was  granted  for  promoting  public  worship 
and  the  advancement  of  religion  we  flatter  ourselves 
that  every  well  wisher  to  Society  and  good  order  will 
become  cheerful  adventurers."  So  far  for  piety,  but 
Mammon  now  has  its  inning:  "For  those  who  adven- 
ture from  motives  of  gain  the  scheme  is  advantageously 
calculated, there  being  less  than  two  Blanks  to  a. Prize." 
The  italics  are  in  the  original. 

As  already  stated,  Manning  was  elected  President  at 
the  second  meeting  of  the  Corporation,  September  4, 
1765.  His  official  title  exceeded  even  Holmes's  fa- 
mous "settee  of  professorships,"  for  he  was  not  only 
President  but  "Professor  of  Languages  and  other 
Branches  of  Learning."  It  is  significant  of  the  feeling 
that  the  location  of  the  college  at  Warren  was  only 
temporary,  that  this  vote  continued, "with  full  power 
to  act  immediately  in  these  capacities  at  Warren,  or 
elsewhere."  In  1769,  when  Howell  was  elected  "Pro- 
fessor of  Natural  Philosophy,"  the  President's  title  was 
abridged  to  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy. 

One  day  before  there  was  any  President  or  Faculty, 
the  first  student  was  inscribed  on  the  roll  of  the  college 
— the  first  in  the  long  and  honored  roll  which  now  num- 
bers 7748  names.  This  first  student,  whose  career  we 
shall  subsequently  follow,  was  William  Rogers,  a  boy  of 
fourteen.  For  nine  months  and  seventeen  days  he  was 
the  only  student.  On  June  20, 1766,  Richard  Stites  in- 
creased the  "students" — a  plural  is  now  proper — to 
two,  while  four  others  entered  during  November,  1 766. 
In  1 768  a  seventh  student  completed  the  first  class, 
who  were  graduated  in  1 769.  The  charge  for  tuition  was 
twelve  dollars  per  annum.  On  August  11,1 766,  there  is 
a  receipt  in  Manning's  handwriting  for  "three  Spanish 

C  147  3 


V 


Brown  University 

milled  dollars,"  being  one  quarter's  tuition.  Boarding 
cost  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  a  week,  single  meals  six  cents. 

Manning's  salary  as  president  was  much  less  in  evi- 
dence than  that  as  pastor.  The  income  from  the  funds 
collected  by  Morgan  Edwards  in  1 767-68  was  pledged 
for  this  salary.  Notwithstanding  this,  a  committee  of 
the  Corporation,  on  September  17,1 769,  reported  that 
the  President  had  served  the  college  for  three  years 
and  had  received  no  compensation,  so  the  sum  of  ^50 
''lawful  money"  was  ordered  to  be  paid  to  him.  This 
would  be  equivalent  to  $\66.66  in  Spanish  milled  dol- 
lars. The  committee  very  properly  stated  that  in  their 
opinion  this  sum  was  quite  inadequate,  and  that  he 
should  not  be  debarred  "from  being  recompensed  in 
a  more  ample  manner  whenever  it  should  be  in  the 
power  of  the  Corporation  to  do  the  same."  Fortunately 
the  church  and  the  Latin  school  eked  out  his  living  ex- 
penses. In  1 772,  in  a  letter  to  Rev.  John  Ryland,  Man- 
ning states  that  his  salary  was  ^67  135.  ^d.  sterling,  or 
about  I338.S0  scrupulous  was  he  that  he  had  always  in- 
cluded as  a  part  of  this  meagre  salary  the  five  guineas 
sent  to  him  annually  by  Ryland  from  England. 

The  first  mention  of  any  library  was  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Corporation  in  1 768,  when  the  President  was  re- 
quested to  write  to  Morgan  Edwards,  then  in  London, 
to  bring  "  such  books  as  he  shall  think  necessary  at  this 
time,  not  exceeding  =£20  value."  Several  of  the  sub- 
scribers secured  by  Edwards  gave  some  books.  The 
University  still  has  the  pine  table  of  William  Williams, 
the  drawers  of  which  held  the  entire  library  while  the 
college  was  in  Warren. 

hi  1 769  the  first  commencement  was  held  in  War- 
ren. On  August  10,  1769,  doubtless  in  preparation 

[  148 : 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

for  this  notable  event,  a  subscription  list,  headed  by 
Manning  with  twelve  shillings,  was  circulated  for  re- 
painting the  meeting-house  "both  outside  and  inside," 
"provided  the  business  be  immediately  prosecuted." 
On  the  day  before  this  commencement  the  Corpora- 
tion voted  "That  the  Meeting  House  in  Warren  be 
fitted  up  at  the  charge  of  the  Corporation  in  the  best 
manner  the  shortness  of  time  will  permit." 

It  was  a  great  day.  "Tradition  says  that  a  Company 
of  Baptist  preachers  from  Georgia  rode  over  a  month 
on  horseback  to  be  there ! "  Apparently  the  governor 
did  not  attend  this,  the  only  commencement  held  in 
Warren. 

John  Rowland  gives  a  very  vivid  account  of  the  state- 
liness  of  the  first  five  commencements  in  Providence: 
"The  Commencements  in  Providence  for  the  first  five 
years  were  held  in  Mr.  Snow's  meeting  house,  that  be- 
ing then  the  largest  in  town.  Governor  Wanton  always 
attended  from  Newport.  .  .  .  Escorted  by  the  Company 
of  Cadets  in  showy  uniforms,  he  headed  the  procession 
with  the  President.  The  Governor's  wig,  which  had 
been  made  in  England,  was  of  the  size  and  pattern  of 
that  of  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  so 
large  that  the  shallow  crowned  hat  could  not  be  placed 
on  his  head  without  disturbing  the  curls.  He  therefore 
placed  it  under  his  left  arm,  and  held  his  umbrella  in 
his  right  hand.  This  was  the  first  umbrella  ever  seen 
carried  by  a  gentleman  in  Providence,  though  they  had 
been  some  time  in  use  by  Ladies  on  a  sunny  day.  Gov- 
ernor Wanton  was  the  most  dignified  and  respectable 
looking  man  we  had  ever  seen.  The  white  wig  of  Presi- 
ident  Manning  was  of  the  largest  dimensions  usually 
worn  in  this  country." 

C    149   3 


Brown  University 

For  sixty  years  to  my  own  knowledge  the  sheriff  of 
the  county  of  Providence,  with  his  cockade,  his  broad 
blue  sash,  and  his  sword  of  state,  without  any  deputies, 
has  been  amply  sufficient  to  preserve  '*  civil  peace,  good 
order  and  decorum  at  Commencement." 

The  first  commencement  foreshadowed  1775,  only 
six  years  away,  for  "  not  only  the  Candidates  but  even 
the  President  was  dressed  in  American  manufactures." 
There  were  both  a  morning  and  an  afternoon  session, 
and  all  the  seven  in  the  graduating  class  pronounced 
orations.  Such  was  the  avidity  for  oratory  that  Mor- 
gan Edwards  also  preached  them  a  sermon  in  the  even- 
ing. Two  of  the  class  debated  the  question  whether 
the  Americans  could  '*  affect  to  become  an  independent 
State."  In  this ''Disputatio  forensica  "  Varnum  was  a 
warm  advocate  of  American  freedom.  "  Doubtless,"  he 
says,  "  we  should  long  since  have  obtained  redress  had 
we  not  been  tormented  by  Worms  in  our  own  Bowels," 
z.^.,"Torys."Thoughwarmly  in  favor  of  our  independ- 
ence, his  conclusion  was  that  Great  Britain  could  over- 
whelm us,  and  that  the  attempt  to  form  an  independent 
state  would  end  in  disaster.William Williams,  however, 
believed  that  we  could  successfully  resist  Great  Britain, 
and  ended  his  speech  with  the  words,  in  capital  letters, 
"AMERICA  SHALL  BE  FREE."  The  Salutatory  and  the 
*'  Syllogistic  Disputation"  were  in  Latin.  (In  1776 one 
oration  was  in  Hebrew. )  Charles  Thompson,  the  vale- 
dictorian, "took  a  most  affectionate  leave  of  his  class- 
mates," and  the  reporter  adds, "the  Scene  was  tender, 
the  Subject  felt  and  the  Audience  affected." 

Of  these  first  seven  graduates, one  died  in  1 775.  Four 
entered  the  patriot  army.  Richard  Stites  was  a  captain 
and  died  of  wounds  in  1 776.  James  M.  Varnum  became 

C  150  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

distinguished  as  a  major-general  in  the  army,  and  later 
at  the  bar  and  as  a  member  of  Congress.  He  was  able 
to  converse  in  Latin  with  Blanchard,the  quartermaster- 
general  of  the  French  forces  in  Providence.  Charles 
Thompson  was  Manning's  successor  in  the  Warren 
church.  In  1 778,  while  on  leave  from  the  army,  he  was 
captured  by  the  British  in  their  raid  upon  Warren  and 
held  a  prisoner  for  some  weeks. 

William  Rogers  had  a  noteworthy  career.  He  was 
pastor  of  my  own  church  1772-75,  chaplain  and  later 
brigade  chaplain  in  the  army  1776-81,  professor  of 
oratory  and  belles-lettres  in  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania for  twenty-two  years,  and  a  laureate  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  of  Yale,  and  of  Prince- 
ton. In  this  same  History  ( page  58 )  I  note  that  among 
his  publications  is  "  The  Prayer  delivered  on  Saturday 
the  22nd  of  February,  1800,  in  the  German  Reformed 
Church,  Philadelphia,  before  the  Pennsylvania  Soci- 
ety of  the  Cincinnate,  published  by  particular  request, 
8vo.  pp.  12."  I  must  confess  that  the  patience  of  the 
*'  Cincinnate"  may  well  have  been  exhausted  by  twelve 
pages  of  prayer. 

One  probably  unique  incident  in  his  life  is  thus 
recorded.  It  is  an  extract  from  the  records  of  King's 
Church  (now  St.  John's), Providence,  and  relates  to 
Sunday,  June  19,  1782:  "At  the  request  o-f  the  war- 
dens, the  Rev.  Mr.  William  Rogers,  a  Baptist  clergy- 
man, preached  in  the  Church  this  and  the  following 
Sunday,  and  on  the  30th  of  the  same  month  he  again 
preached,  and  the  wardens  were  requested  to  wait  upon 
and  thank  him  for  this  day's  service,  and  present  him 
with  the  contribution,  and  ask  him  to  officiate  in  Church 
next  Sunday  i?i  his  way,  provided  he  cannot  conform 

C  151  ] 


Brown  University 

to  our  liturgy,  but  if  he  will  conform,  the  congregation 
invite  him  further  to  serve  them."  The  italics  are  in  the 
original. 

Of  the  other  two  members  of  this  first  class,  one 
was  a  fellow  of  the  University  for  twenty-nine  years,  a 
teacher,  and  a  pastor.  The  seventh  died  about  1785. 

But  if  the  graduating  class  was  small,  the  number  of 
honora ry  degrees — twenty-two — was  large ,  over  three 
times  the  number  of  degrees  in  course.  Of  these,  seven 
are  curiously  stated  to  have  received  their  degree  "  at 
their  own  request."  They  were  all  college  men,  three 
from  Harvard,  two  from  Princeton,  and  one  each  from 
Yale  and  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Fourteen 
were  "  well  recommended  by  the  Faculty  for  literary 
merit;"  four  of  these  were  college  men.  One  of  the 
twenty-two,  Henry  Ward,  was  accidentally  omitted 
from  both  lists  by  the  reporter.  Six  of  the  twenty-two 
were  clergymen  in  Great  Britain.  Among  the  Ameri- 
cans were  David  Howell,  the  second  member  of  the 
Faculty,  Joseph  Wanton,  the  deputy  governor,  and 
four  clergymen,  staunch  early  friends  of  the  college, 
Morgan  Edwards,  Samuel  Jones,  Hezekiah  Smith, 
and  Samuel  Stillman. 

Master  of  Arts  was  the  only  honorary  degree  con- 
ferred until  1 784,  when  Stephen  Hopkins  was  given  an 
LL.D.  In  1786  Granville  Sharp,  the  philanthropist  and 
founder  of  the  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  was 
similarly  honored.  The  next  year  the  same  degree  was 
given  to  Jefferson;  in  1790,  to  Washington;  in  1792, 
to  Hamilton;  and  in  1797,  to  John  Adams.  In  1840 
Benjamin  Franklin — not  the  original  philosopher  but 
an  Episcopal  clergyman — was  graduated  with  an  A.B. 

In  the  broadside  or  programme  of  the  first  commence- 

[   152  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

ment  one  very  significant  sentence  appears, but  in  small 
type:  "Nomina  alphabetice  disposita  sunt."  In  the  older 
colleges  a  different  practice  had  prevailed. "  In  all  the 
Harvard  College  catalogs  previous  to  1773/'  says  Sib- 
ley, "the  graduates  .  .  .  are  arranged  not  in  alphabeti- 
cal order,  but  according  to  their  social  position  or  fam- 
ily rank.  Judge  Wingate,  writing  to  Librarian  Peirce 
respecting  the  excitement  which  was  generally  called 
up  when  a  class  in  college  was  *  placed/  says  *  the  schol- 
ars were  often  enraged  beyond  bounds  for  their  disap- 
pointment, and  it  was  some  time  before  a  class  could 
be  settled  down  to  an  acquiescence  in  the  allotment.' 
The  higher  part  of  the  class,  those  whose  names  came 
first  in  the  earlier  catalogs,  generally  had  the  most  in- 
fluential friends ;  and  they  commonly  had  the  best  cham- 
bers in  college  assigned  them.  They  also  had  a  right  to 
help  themselves  first  at  the  table  in  commons.  *I  think,' 
Judge  Wingate  concludes,  'that  the  government  of 
the  college,  in  my  day,  was  a  complete  aristocracy.'" 
A  practice  similar  to  this  prevailed  when  families  were 
seated  in  church.  In  the  list  of  scholars  at  Harrow  in  the 
eighteenth  century,"  Mister"  always  signified  the  son 
of  a  peer.  Democratic ,  liberty-loving  Rhode  Island  in  this 
simple  and  inconspicuous  word,"  alphabetice," reechoed 
the  new  note  for  democracy  and  liberty  sounded  by 
Yale  a  year  earlier.  But  we  took  this  stand  at  our  very 
first  possible  opportunity,  that  is,  at  the  very  first  com- 
mencement. 

The  date  of  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Corporation 
was  fixed  by  the  charter  on  the  first  Wednesday  in 
September,  "at  which  or  at  any  other  time  the  Public 
Commencement  may  be  held  and  celebrated."  Com- 
mencement from  the  beginning  until   1870,  eleven 

[   ^53   ] 


Brown  University 

years  after  I  graduated,  was  always  held  on  the  first 
Wednesday  in  September.  This  was  most  inconvenient 
for  the  students,  and  a  severe  tax  on  the  resources  of 
not  a  few.  The  college  work  ended  in  June,  and  to  com- 
pel men  to  come  back  three  months  later  simply  to  re- 
ceive their  "sheepskins"  was  a  hardship.  Moreover, it 
was  equally  inconvenient  for  the  people  of  Providence, 
especially  as  the  summer  vacations  grew  longer  and 
longer  and  people  returned  to  the  city  later  and  later. 
Finally,  in  1870,  the  date  of  commencement  was 
changed  to  the  third  Wednesday  in  June. 

At  the  second  meeting  of  the  Corporation  ( 1 765 )  it 
was  directed  that  a  seal  be  prepared,  but  a  copperplate 
for  diplomas  was  not  ordered  until  September,  i773- 
Possibly  this  was  partly  due  to  the  odious  Stamp  Act, 
for,  said  Senator  La  Fayette  S.  Foster,  speaking  at  the 
centennial  dinner:  "Lord  Grenville,  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  in  March,  1764,  .  .  •  gave  notice  in 
Parliament  that  he  would  apply  the  stamp  act  to  the 
colonies,  and  that  stamp  act  imposed  a  tax  even  upon 
college  diplomas."  Meantime  the  diplomas  were  evi- 
dently written,  for  Manning,  in  a  letter  to  Rev.  John 
Ryland  on  November  12, 1772,  says  that  the  college 
had  conferred  an  A.M.  on  Ryland's  son, "but  through 
my  hurry  and  absence  from  home  since  Commence- 
ment I  have  not  got  his  diploma  written." 

When  the  college  was  moved  to  Providence,  Man- 
ning reopened  his  Latin  school,  which  later  became 
the  University  Grammar  School.  He  was  immediately 
invited  to  preach  for  the  First  Baptist  Church  and  later 
became  its  pastor. 

The  second  commencement  (1770)  was  held  in 
Mr.  Snow's  meeting-house,  and  notwithstanding  the 

C  154  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

reported  "decorum"  that  prevailed,  the  Corporation 
were  obliged  to  pay  for  breakages  of  windows,  etc., 
owing  to  the  throng.  "The  members  of  the  Grammar 
School  joined  in  the  procession.  Before  the  assembly 
broke  up  a  piece  from  Homer  was  pronounced  by  Mas- 
ter Billy  Edwards  (son  of  Morgan  Edwards),  one  of 
the  Grammar  School  boys  not  nine  years  old." 

Poor  Billy  Edwards ! 

Four  students  only  were  graduated,  one  of  whom, 
Theodore  Foster,  attained  prominence  as  a  United 
States  senator,  judge,  and  antiquary.  But  the  Fellows 
kept  up  the  pace  set  the  year  before  in  the  matter  of 
honorary  degrees.  This  ratio  in  1 769  was  three  for  one, 
and  in  1 770,  with  four  graduates,  they  gave  the  honor- 
ary A.M.  to  twelve  men,  of  whom  seven  were  English- 
men. Only  one  of  the  twelve  ( Benjamin  West )  achieved 
any  distinction. 

In  the  bill  of  Nicholas  Brown  &  Co.  for  the  expenses 
incurred  in  building  University  Hall  and  the  President's 
house  in  1770,  several  items  are  of  interest. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Corporation  ( held,  be  it  ob- 
served, at  7  a.m.),  at  the  time  of  the  very  successful 
first  commencement  in  September,  1 769,  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  buy  a  site  in  Bristol  county  ( in  which 
Warren  was  situated)  and  erect  a  building.  This 
aroused  a  lively  opposition  in  other  counties  against 
Warren  as  the  permanent  location.  A  special  meeting 
of  the  Corporation  was  held  at  Newport,  November 
14  to  16.  Professor  Bronson's  History  gives  the  details. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  Corporation  rescinded  the 
vote  in  favor  of  W^arren,  and  directed  that  the  building 
committee  "  do  not  proceed  to  procure  any  other  ma- 
terials . .  .  excepting  such  as  may  easily  be  transported 


Brown  University 

to  any  other  place,"  if  such  place  be  selected  before 
January  i ,  1 770.  It  was  then  explicitly  voted  "  that  the 
College  edifice  be  at  Providence,"  upon  the  condition 
that  the  subscription  of  Providence  be  larger  than  that 
of  Newport  or  of  any  other  county. 

Another  special  meeting  for  final  action  was  called 
in  Warren  for  February  7,  1770.  The  debate  on  the 
location  was  evidently  conducted  in  public,  for  it  was 
before  "a  crowded  audience."  It  was  also  very  long 
and  very  heated. The  discussion  lasted  from  ten  o'clock 
Wednesday  morning  until  ten  o'clock  Thursday  night, 
when  finally  Providence  won  over  Newport  by  twenty- 
one  to  fourteen  votes.  The  decision  turned  upon  the 
amount  of  the  respective  subscriptions.  Moses  Brown 
confesses  that,  as  at  first  computed,  Newport  exceeded 
the  subscriptions  of  Providence  "land  and  all."  The 
word  "land"  throws  fight  on  certain  items  in  the  bill 
of  Nicholas  Brown  &  Co.,  for  on  January  1 , 1 770  ( over 
a  month  before  the  final  vote  in  favor  of  Providence 
was  taken )  ,are  the  following  items  1(1)  Three  persons 
(only  one  of  whom,  Joseph  Brown,  was  a  member  of 
the  Corporation)  were  sent  to  Cambridge  "^0  view  the 
Colleges." Their  total  expenses  were  ^7  35.  Syid.  (2) 
Five  shillings  and  three  pence  were  voted  for  the  hire 
of  horses  to  go  seven  miles  "  to  purchase  the  lot  for  the 
College;  "and  ( 3 )  three  shillings  and  seven  pence  were 
paid  for  a  horse  and  ferriage  in  going  to  Rehoboth  ''to 
contract  for  6nV^."  While  the  entries  are  all  dated  Janu- 
ary 1 , 1 779,  they  were  clearly  for  services  rendered  at 
various  times  before  that  date.  Evidently, therefore,  the 
Providence  people  had  faith  that  the  ultimate  decision 
would  be  in  their  favor. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  habits  of  the  time,  some 

[   156  ] 


Early  Years  of  Brown  University 

other  items  also  in  this  bill  are  of  interest.  On  June  19, 
1770,  an  entry  reads  one  shilling  and  six  pence  **for 
one  pail  to  carry  water  to  drink  in."  This  pail,  how- 
ever, I  fear  did  not  suffer  from  over-use,  for  from  that 
same  date,  June  19, to  July  18,  just  twenty-six  days  ex- 
cluding Sundays,  thirty-six  items  appear  for  **West 
India  rum," ''good  rum,"  "very  good  rum,"  or  "old 
rum."  When  the  president's  house  was  "raised"  the 
rum  was  sweetened  with  sugar.  The  laying  of  each 
floor  of  University  Hall  and  the  raising  of  the  roof 
were  rewarded  by  sweetened  rum.  The  well-diggers 
were  especially  favored,  for  twenty-four  of  the  thirty- 
six  items  were  for  them, and  when  they  actually  " found 
the  spring"  the  chancellor,  Stephen  Hopkins,  himself 
ordered  an  extra  half  gallon. 

But  I  have  Hngered  too  long  over  the  details  of  this 
interesting  though  brief  period  of  our  history.  Looking 
back  over  all  these  six  years  of  almost  disheartening 
struggle,  what  lesson  should  we  learn  .^ 

The  honored,  yea,  revered  founders  of  this  Univer- 
sity were  men  of  heroic  mold.  Undaunted  by  the  many 
obstacles  blocking  their  pathway,  they  fearlessly  grap- 
pled with  them  all  and  overcame  them  all.  They  builded 
into  meeting-house  and  parsonage,  and  Latin  school  and 
college,  their  own  rugged  character  and  determination 
to  succeed,  and  what  is  more  they  did  succeed.  They 
have  been  splendidly  seconded  by  their  successors. 
Witness  the  fair  "College  sur  la  Colline,"  and  witness 
its  worthy  fruitage  in  private  culture  and  character,  in 
public  service  to  church  and  state,  to  industry  and  in- 
vention ,  to  literature,  education , theology , medicine, and 
law,  and  to  honorable  commercial  life. 

C  157  ] 


Brown  University 

The  little  seed  planted  by  Morgan  Edwards,  watered 
and  watched  over  by  James  Manning,  has  grown  to 
be  a  stately  tree,  whose  branches  have  sheltered  every 
creed,  whose  fruit  has  nourished  six  generations  of 
brave  men  and  women  who  have  helped  to  build,  to 
preserve,  to  instruct,  and  to  develop  this  nation ;  who 
have  carried  the  Gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  who 
have  taught  us  to  live  not  by  bread  alone,  but  by  the 
things  of  the  spirit.  These  are  the  things  that  elevate 
and  ennoble  character,  and  Brown  University  has  ever 
set  on  high  these  real  and  eternal  verities  of  God. 

The  exercises  in  the  church  were  brought  to  a  close 
with  the  singing  of  an  anthem  by  the  church  choir,  and 
the  benediction  by  President  Faunce. 

At  half  after  five  o'clock  a  supper  was  served  in  the 
vestry  of  the  church  to  delegates  and  invited  guests. 
Mr.  John  E.  Thompson,  a  great-grandson  of  the  Rev. 
Charles  Thompson,  the  valedictorian  of  the  first  class 
graduating  from  the  University  in  1769,  presided  at 
the  supper.  Addresses  were  made  after  the  supper  by 
President  Faunce,  Andrew  Jackson  Jennings,  '72,  and 
Rev.  Franklin  G.  McKeever,  D.D./81. 


[    158   ] 


The  Torchliorht  Procession 

ON  Tuesday  evening,  thirteenth  October,  a  Torch- 
light Procession  of  undergraduates  and  alumni 
in  costume  paraded  the  streets  of  Providence,  escorted 
by  the  National  Guard  of  the  state  and  most  of  the 
chartered  commands.  This  parade  formed  the  special 
contribution  of  the  students  to  the  sesquicentennial 
celebration,  and  they  were  ably  assisted  by  large  num- 
bers of  the  alumni  and  the  citizen  soldiery  of  Rhode 
Island.  The  procession,  as  it  marched  amid  the  throngs 
of  spectators  lining  the  streets,  typified  symbolically 
scenes  and  events  in  the  early  life  of  the  colony  and  the 
University.  The  torch-bearers  gathered  on  the  middle 
campus;  the  military  escort  formed  on  Lincoln  Field. 
Brigadief-GeneralCharlesW.  Abbott,  Jr., was  the  chief 
marshal  of  the  procession,  and  Colonel  Henry  Bray  ton 
Rose,  '81 ,  was  the  marshal  of  the  University  division. 
At  the  head  of  the  procession,  preceded  by  mounted 
police  skirmishers  and  a  platoon  of  policemen  on  foot, 
came  the  chief  marshal  and  his  staff,  leading  the  mili- 
tary division.  The  Rhode  Island  National  Guard  came 
next,  made  up  successively  of  the  Coast  Defense  com- 
mands, a  squadron  of  Cavalry,  the  Hospital  Corps,  a 
battery  of  Field  Artillery,  and  the  Rhode  Island  Naval 
Battalion.  The  chartered  companies  were  represented 
by  the  United  Train  of  Artillery ;  the  First  Light  Infan- 
try Regiment,  with  a  detail  of  the  Newport  Artillery  as 
guests;  the  Warren  Artillery;  and  the  Varnum  Con- 
tinentals. The  University  division,  with  Marshal  Rose 
and  his  staff  at  its  head,  was  composed  of  alumni  of 
classes  from  1870  to  1914,  and  of  the  undergraduates. 
Special  features  brought  up  the  rear,  among  which 


Brown  University 

were  the  notable  crew  of  the  class  of  1873,  and  the 
famous  ball  team  of  the  class  of  1870.  The  "Junior 
Burial,"  with  a  crape-enveloped  book-loaded  hearse, 
drawn  by  a  pair  of  ancient  horses,  temporarily  formed 
the  rear  of  the  procession,  soon  to  wander  off,  presum- 
ably to  celebrate  the  ancient  rite  of  the  burning  and 
burial  of  the  books. 

The  Coast  Defense  commands  were  in  khaki ;  the 
other  National  Guardsmen  in  regulation  blue;  the  First 
Light  Infantry  were  in  their  full-dress  uniforms  of 
scarlet  and  light  blue  with  bearskin  shakos ;  the  United 
Train  of  Artillery  in  artillery  red  and  blue;  and  the 
Varnum  Continentals,  as  their  name  would  imply,  in 
the  colonial  colors  of  white,  buff,  and  blue.  The  alumni 
of  the  classes  from  1870  to  1899  led  the  torch-bearers 
in  academic  cap  and  gown,  their  parti-colored  mortar- 
boards being  brown  on  top  and  white  beneath,  their 
gowns  white  with  brown  trimmings;  graduates  of 
the  classes  from  1900  to  1905  followed  in  the  knee- 
breeches,  short  jackets,  and  sugar-loaf  hats  of  the  com- 
panions of  Roger  Williams ;  members  of  the  classes 
from  1 906  to  1 908  represented  in  Quaker  gray  the  first- 
comers  of  the  Society  of  Friends  to  the  infant  colony; 
and  classmen  from  1909  to  1914  personified  the  com- 
patriots of  Lafayette  who  were  quartered  in  University 
Hall  during  the  American  Revolution.  Of  the  student 
body  the  Senior  Class,  that  of  191 5,  in  Continental  uni- 
forms, typified  with  fife  and  drum  the  "Spirit  of '76'." 
The  Junior  Class,  that  of  1916,  in  blue  uniforms  with 
the  tall  shako  of  the  period,  symbolized  "the  Soldiers 
of  the  War  of  1812."  The  Sophomores ,  class  of  1 9 1 7 , 
in  white  trousers  and  red  stocking-caps,  appropriately 
represented  the  devil-may-care  French  sailors  who  as- 

1: 160  ] 


The  Torchlight  Procession 

sisted  in  the  American  Revolution.  The  Freshmen, class 
of  1918,  disguised  as  Narragansett  Indians  in  red  blan- 
kets, with  copper-colored  faces  and  a  feather  in  the 
scalplock,  gave  a  fantastic  air  to  the  spectacle.  "  Gentle- 
men of  the  Colonial  Period  "  and  **  Gentlemen  of  the 
Early  Nineteenth  Century,"  with  beaver  hats  and  ruf- 
fled shirt  fronts,  brought  the  procession  to  an  effective 
ending.  The  route  of  march,  upon  starting  from  Lin- 
coln Field,  was  Manning  Street,  Hope  Street,  Young 
Orchard  Avenue,  Cooke  Street,  Waterman  Street  to 
Prospect  Street,  College  Street,  Benefit  Street,  Water- 
man Street,  Exchange  Place,  Dorrance  Street,  Wey- 
bosset  Street,  Cathedral  Square;  countermarching, 
Weybosset  Street,  Market  Square,  College  Street  to 
the  University  campus.  When  passing  the  City  Hall 
the  procession  was  reviewed  by  Governor  Pothier  and 
Mayor  Gainer  with  other  state  and  city  officials.  Upon 
the  return  of  the  procession  to  the  campus  a  band  con- 
cert was  given,  and  there  was  a  display  upon  a  large 
screen  of  stereopticon  pictures  depicting  early  scenes 
and  men  connected  with  the  college.  The  event  was 
brought  to  an  appropriate  ending  by  a  huge  bonfire  on 
Lincoln  Field. 


L   161   3 


Historical  Address 

and  the  Presentation  of  Delegates 

ON  Wednesday  forenoon,  fourteenth  October, 
at  half  after  ten  o'clock,  the  Historical  Address 
was  delivered  in  the  First  Baptist  Meeting-House  by 
Charles  Evans  Hughes,  LL.D.,  of  the  class  of  1881,  an 
Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  After  the  address  the  visiting  delegates  were 
formally  presented  to  President  Faunce  and  Chancellor 
Arnold  BuflRam  Chace. 

At  nine  forty-five  o'clock  the  academic  procession 
was  formed  on  the  front  campus  under  the  direction  of 
the  university  marshal,  Henry  Van  Amburgh  Joslin, 
of  the  class  of  1867.  The  visiting  delegates,  invited 
guests,  and  members  of  the  Corporation  and  Faculty 
together  with  the  senior  classes  were  in  academic  cos- 
tume. Promptly  at  ten  o'clock  the  procession,  with  the 
American  Band  and  the  chief  marshal  and  his  aids  at  its 
head,  the  band  playing  the  "  Commencement  March," 
began  its  march  in  reverse  order  to  the  meeting-house. 

The  order  of  the  procession  was  as  follows : 

First  Division :  The  Sheriff  of  Providence  County, 
the  President,  the  Chancellor,  the  Orator  of  the  Day, 
the  Board  of  Fellows,  the  Trustees,  the  Deans  of  the 
University,  the  Faculty,  and  other  officers  of  the  Uni- 
versity. 

Second  Division:  Delegates  from  institutions  in 
countries  other  than  the  United  States,  Delegates  from 
institutions  in  the  United  States. 

Third  Division:  His  Excellency  the  Governor  of 
Rhode  Island,  the  Governor's  Staff,  the  United  States 

1: 162  J 


Historical  Address 

Senators  from  Rhode  Island,  Members  of  Congress 
from  Rhode  Island,  his  Honor  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  Rhode  Island,  members  of  the  State  Senate,  the 
Speaker  of  the  House,  members  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, the  District  Judge  of  the  United  States  for 
the  District  of  Rhode  Island,  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  the  judges  of  the  Superior  Court, other  officers  of 
the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  the  Mayor  of  Providence, 
the  President  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  the  President 
of  the  Common  Council,  other  officers  of  the  City  of 
Providence. 

Fourth  Divisio7i:  Diplomats,  former  officers  of  in- 
struction in  the  University,  the  ministers  of  churches 
in  Providence,  representatives  of  Alumni  Associations, 
members  of  visiting  committees  of  the  University,  other 
guests. 

Fifth  Division :  The  Alumni  of  the  University  in  the 
order  of  their  classes,  the  Senior  Class. 

Sixth  'Division:  The  Dean  of  the  Women's  College 
in  Brown  University,  the  Advisory  Council  of  the 
Women's  College,  the  Alumnae  of  the  University  in 
the  order  of  their  classes,  the  Senior  Class  of  the  Wo- 
men's College. 

Upon  arriving  at  the  First  Baptist  Meeting-House 
the  procession  halted,  opened  ranks  according  to  cus- 
tom, and  in  the  ancient  order  the  President  and  Chan- 
cellor, preceded  by  the  chief  marshal  with  his  aids  and 
the  Sheriff  of  Providence  County,  led  the  way  into  the 
meeting-house.  Fairman's  Orchestra  opened  the  ex- 
ercises with  the  overture  to  "Tancredi,"  by  Rossini. 
President  Faunce  offered  prayer,  and  then  introduced 
Mr.  Justice  Hughes,  whose  address  follows: 

C    163   ] 


Brown  University 

WE  pause  with  reverent  retrospect  as  this  institu- 
tion of  learning  completes  its  third  half-century 
of  service.  We  linger  for  a  moment  to  reconstruct  the 
past;  to  fill  the  familiar  scene  with  the  officers  and  stu- 
dents of  other  days;  to  recognize,  with  grateful  appre- 
ciation, the  continuity  of  high-minded  effort  which  has 
made  Brown  University  a  vital  force  in  State  and  Na- 
tion. This  historic  edifice  is  itself  a  memorial  of  almost 
the  entire  period.  In  this  place  every  President — from 
Manning  to  Faunce — has  stirred  ambitious  youth  by 
eloquent  counsel;  and  through  these  aisles — from  the 
year  of  Independence — has  passed  the  long  proces- 
sion of  the  sons  of  Brown.  We  go  still  further  back  for 
the  origin  of  the  college, — to  the  time  when  the  Seven 
Years'  War  had  established  England's  supremacy  in 
the  New  World ;  when  the  Peace  of  Paris  was  of  yester- 
day and  the  Stamp  Act  of  the  morrow;  when  the  Repub- 
lic was  not  yet  in  the  thought  of  its  founders,  and  Rhode 
Island's  committee  of  correspondence,  Stephen  Hop- 
kins, Daniel  Jenckes,and  Nicholas  Brown, — three  of 
our  first  Board  of  Trustees, — were  wishing  "that  some 
method  could  be  hit  upon  for  collecting  the  sentiments 
of  each  colony,  and  for  uniting  and  forming  the  sub- 
stance of  them  all  into  one  common  defense  of  the 
whole." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  decade  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  there  were  six  colleges  in  the  American 
colonies. Three, Harvard,  William  and  Mary, and  Yale, 
already  had  long  histories;  the  others, the  College  of 
New  Jersey,  King's  ( later  Columbia ) ,  and  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  were  recent  foundations.  They 
had  few  students,  and  very  slender  resources.  In  curricu- 
lum, they  were  narrow ;  in  the  government  of  students, 

C  164  ] 


Historical  Address 

paternal;  in  inspiration  and  abiding  influence, powerful. 
To  this  little  group  Rhode  Island  College  was  added 
in  the  year  1764.  Naked  it  came  into  the  educational 
world ;  chartered, but  without  possessions.  It  had  neither 
the  aid  of  public  moneys  nor  private  endowment.  But  ^"^^ 
there  were  enlisted  in  its  behalf  earnest  leaders  of  a 
religious  body  which  was  unrepresented  in  the  control 
of  the  other  colleges,  and  the  new  undertaking,  with 
promise  of  advantage  to  the  prosperous  and  enlight- 
ened colony,  engaged  the  active  interest  of  many  of  its 
most  influential  citizens. 

The  enterprise  was  under  denominational  auspices,  l^ 
but  the  design  was  notably  liberal.  The  Baptists,  still 
comparatively  few,  were  rapidly  increasing. Steadfastly 
asserting  the  direct  responsibility  of  the  soul  to  its 
Maker,  insisting  that  the  state  should  confine  its  au- 
thority to  civil  things,  and  possessing  a  vital  faith  which 
enabled  them  to  triumph  over  the  discouragements  of 
poverty,  scorn,  and  oppression,  these  champions  of  lib- 
erty of  conscience  were  advancing  with  growing  power 
to  the  happy  days — as  yet  unseen — when  the  cardinal 
tenet  of  the  poor  and  despised  sectaries  should  be  pro- 
claimed as  the  essential  basis  of  an  enduring  republic. 
But  there  was  a  serious  need  of  a  change  of  attitude 
toward  education.  Emphasizing  religious  experience, 
they  had  largely  neglected  letters ;  and  the  opposition 
of  men  distinguished  for  their  learning  had  fostered 
an  unfortunate  aversion.  There  was  a  lamentable  lack 
of  well-equipped  pastors.  The  wiser  minds  among  the 
Baptists  w^ere  anxious  to  stimulate  educational  interest 
by  founding  an  institution  which  should  make  a  strong 
appeal  to  denominational  sentiment,  and  to  provide 
an  opportunity  for  liberal  training  with  an  environment 

C  165 ;] 


Brown  University 

undeniably  free  from  all  antagonism  to  their  cherished 
principles,  whether  in  spirit  or  in  instruction.  It  was  in 
the  Philadelphia  Association,  then  representing  Baptist 
churches  which  were  scattered  from  New  York  to  Vir- 
ginia,that  the  estabhshment  of  the  new  college  was  first 
proposed.  This  was  in  the  year  1 762 ;  and  to  the  ener- 
getic Welshman,  Morgan  Ed  wards,  pastor  of  the  Phila- 
delphia church,  is  accorded  the  honor  of  having  started 
the  movement.  Rhode  Island  was  finally  chosen  as  the 
colony  best  adapted  to  the  purpose.  It  was  a  natural 
choice,  regardful  of  the  liberal  sentiment  of  the  colony, 
the  large  share  of  the  Baptists  in  its  settlement  and  de- 
velopment, and  the  excellent  prospect  of  strong  sup- 
port. To  Newport,  in  the  summer  of  1 763,  came  James 
Manning, — who  had  been  graduated  at  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  the  year  before, — bearing  the  Association's 
proposal.  It  met  with  immediate  favor,  and  the  charter 
was  granted  in  the  following  year.  The  plan  of  control 
was  unique.  The  Corporation  of  the  college  was  com- 
posed of  two  branches, — "that  of  the  Trustees,  and  that 
of  the  Fellowship ;"  and,  in  general,  to  the  validity  of  all 
acts  "  their  joint  concurrence  "  was  required,  except  that 
"  conferring  the  Academical  Degrees  "  was  to  *'  belong 
exclusively  to  the  Fellowship  as  a  learned  Faculty." 
There  were  to  be  twelve  Fellows:  eight  Baptists,  and 
the  rest  "indifferently  of  any  or  all  Denominations." 
The  President  was  to  be  a  Baptist  and  one  of  the  Fel- 
lows. The  Trustees  were  to  be  thirty-six  in  number: 
twenty-two  Baptists,  five  Friends  or  Quakers,  four 
Congregationalists,  and  five  Episcopalians.  No  provi- 
sion was  made  for  the  representation  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  Chancellor  of  the  University  was  to  be 
chosen  by  the  Corporation  from  the  Trustees, upon  their 

[    166  ] 


Historical  Address 

nomination,  and  was  to  act  as  the  Moderator  of  that 
branch. 

I  refer  to  these  well-known  facts  to  bring  into  clear 
relief  their  true  import.  These  careful  provisions  were 
inserted  not  to  make  the  college  a  centre  of  sectarian- 
ism,—  a  fortress  of  denominational  doctrine, — but  to  in- 
sure its  freedom ;  not  to  gain  a  narrow  partisan  advan- 
tage, but  to  maintain  a  fair  and  equal  chance.  At  a  time 
when  sectarian  antagonisms  were  still  unfortunately 
keen,  these  Baptists — in  the  colony  where  they  were 
most  numerous  and  their  influence  was  strongest — in 
effect  constituted  themselves  the  trustees  of  the  free- 
dom of  learning ;  and  in  this  trusteeship  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  other  denominations  were  invited  to  as- 
sume a  definite  share.  It  was  the  original  purpose  of  the 
Philadelphia  Association,  as  Isaac  Backus,  the  contem- 
porary historian,  tells  us,  "to  erect  a  college  .  .  .  under 
the  chief  direction  of  the  Baptists,  in  which  education 
might  be  promoted,  and  superior  learning  obtained ,Jr^^ 
of  a?iy  sectarian  religious  tests."  The  enterprise  natu- 
rally lost  nothing  of  its  liberal  character  in  the  Rhode 
Island  atmosphere,  and  the  charter  reflected  the  colo- 
nial tradition.  In  its  preamble,  reciting  the  aim  of  the 
establishment,  there  is  an  utter  absence  of  reference  to 
any  sectarian  or  ecclesiastical  object,  and  the  purpose  is 
defined  to  be  the  securing  of  benefits  to  Society  "by 
forming  the  rising  Generation  to  Virtue,  Knowledge, 
and  useful  Literature ;  and  thus  preserving  in  the  Com- 
munity  a  Succession  of  Men  duly  qualified  for  discharg- 
ing the  Offices  of  Life  with  Usefulness  and  Reputation." 
Nor  was  the  design  left  to  the  chance  of  its  prosperity 
under  this  general  statement,  but  in  the  body  of  the 
charter  there  was  set  forth  this  memorable  bill  of  rights; 

[  167 : 


Brown  University 

"That  into  this  Hberal  and  catholic  Institution  shall 
never  be  admitted  any  religious  Tests:  But  on  the  con- 
trary, all  the  Members  hereof  shall  forever  enjoy  full, 
free, absolute, and  uninterrupted  Liberty  of  Conscience: 
And  that  the  Places  of  Professors,  Tutors,  and  all  other 
Officers,  the  President  alone  excepted,  shall  be  free  and 
open  for  all  Denominations  of  Protestants:  And  that 
Youth  of  all  religious  Denominations  shall  and  may  be 
freely  admitted  to  the  equal  Advantages,  Emoluments 
and  Honors  of  the  College  or  University ;  and  shall  re- 
ceive a  like,  fair,  generous,  and  equal  Treatment  dur- 
ing their  residence  therein, they  conducting  themselves 
peaceably,  and  conforming  to  the  Laws  and  Statutes 
thereof.  And  that  the  public  Teaching  shall, in  general, 
respect  the  Sciences ;  and  that  the  Sectarian  Differences 
of  Opinions,  shall  not  make  any  Part  of  the  public  and 
classical  Instruction :  Although  all  religious  Controver- 
sies may  be  studied  freely,  examined  and  explained 
by  the  President,  Professors,  and  Tutors,  in  a  personal, 
separate  and  distinct  Manner,  to  the  Youth  of  any  or 
each  Denomination:  And  above  all,  a  constant  Regard 
be  paid  to,  and  effectual  Care  taken  of,  the  Morals  of 
the  College." 

It  must  be  remembered  that  at  this  time,  in  the  older 
New  England  colleges — now  noted  for  their  liberality 
—  sectarianism  was  still  powerful.  Harvard,  whose  lib- 
eral tendencies  disturbed  the  more  conservative,  con- 
tinued to  serve  the  purpose  of  a  theological  school,  and 
courses  in  divinity  under  a  professor  of  approved  ortho- 
doxy were  still  required.  It  was  in  1 784,  says  President 
Quincy,  that  the  first  step  was  taken  "towards  sepa- 
rating, as  to  the  studies,  those  who  intended  to  make 
theology  a  profession  "  from  other  students.  At  Yale 

C   168  ■] 


Historical  Address 

it  was  regarded  as  essential  that  the  student  ''should 
be  grounded  in  polemical  divinity  according  to  the  As- 
sembly's Catechism,  Dr.  Ames'  Medulla,  and  Cases  of 
Conscience,"  and  that  the  professors  and  tutors  should 
give  public  consent  to  the  Catechism  and  Confession 
of  Faith.  The  President  and  professors  of  William 
and  Mary,  it  is  said,  were  required  to  subscribe  to  the 
Thirty-Nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England.  It  is 
true  that  the  College  of  New  Jersey  and  King's  College 
were  markedly  free  from  narrowness;  and  that  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania  breathed  the  broad  and 
humane  spirit  of  Franklin.  But  there  was  still  ample 
occasion  for  the  emphatic  provision  of  the  Rhode  Is- 
land charter, — at  once  a  declaration  of  principle  and  a 
protest.  It  was  in  no  sense  the  thought  of  the  founders 
of  this  college  that  it  should  not  be  the  instrument  of 
Christian  culture,  but  while  it  was  undoubtedly  the  in- 
tention that  there  should  be  abundant  place  for  the  fun- 
damental truths  which  were  received  by  all  denomina- 
tions, the  controversies  of  sects  were  banished  from  its 
walls.  It  is  the  distinctive  stamp  of  the  charter  of  Brown 
that  more  comprehensively  and  explicitly  than  any  col- 
lege charter  that  preceded  it,  it  bound  the  college  to 
permanent  catholicity,  not  only  in  its  prohibition  of  re- 
ligious tests  but  in  expressly  excluding  from  the  cur- 
riculum sectarian  instruction,  and  that  it  united  in  a 
fixed  relation  the  representatives  of  the  four  religious 
denominations  then  prominent  in  the  community,  as 
the  managers  of  the  affairs  of  the  college  and  as  the 
guarantors  of  its  continued  liberality. 

During  its  first  sixty-two  years,  the  college  had 
three  Presidents,  James  Manning,  Jonathan  Maxcy, 
and  Asa  Messer.  It  was  the  task  of  the  first  to  lay  se- 

c:  169  ] 


Brown  University 

curely  the  foundations  of  the  college  during  the  difficult 
days  of  political  reconstruction.  Chosen  to  be  President 
in  the  year  1 765, — at  the  age  of  twenty-six, — Manning 
held  the  office  until  his  death  in  1 791 .  Prior  to  his  elec- 
tion he  had  established  a  Latin  school  at  Warren,  and 
had  become  the  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  which  was 
formed  at  that  place  under  his  guidance.  There,  in  the 
parsonage  of  the  church,  the  first  students  of  the  col- 
lege were  received, — President  Manning  constituting 
the  Faculty.  And  it  was  at  Warren,  in  1769,  that  the 
first  class  was  graduated,  with  seven  members.  A  few 
thousand  dollars  constituted  the  first  funds,  obtained 
through  hundreds  of  small  contributions  in  England 
and  Ireland,  and  in  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  in 
sums  ranging  from  one  shilling  to  several  pounds.  In 
the  rivalry  over  the  choice  of  a  permanent  location, 
Providence  carried  the  day,  and  the  removal  to  the 
present  site  took  place  in  1 770.  Here,  on  the  '*  high  and 
pleasant  hill"  which  memory  loves,  was  soon  erected 
the  ** College  Edifice"  which  we  know  as  University 
Hall.  Patterned  after  Nassau  Hall  at  Princeton,  its  size 
demonstrated  the  abiding  faith  of  the  founders  in  mak- 
ing this  generous  provision  for  a  college  having  twenty- 
one  students  and  a  Faculty  of  two, — the  President  and 
a  tutor.  But  the  sneers  of  enemies  did  not  diminish  the 
confidence  of  friends.  The  latter  was  again  attested  in 
1775,  the  entire  population  of  Providence  being  then 
less  than  four  thousand  five  hundred,  in  the  erection  by 
the  Baptist  Society  of  this  spacious  meeting-house  "for 
the  publick  Worship  of  Almighty  God,  and  also  for 
holding  Commencements  in."  The  cost  of  the  college 
edifice  was  defrayed  by  subscriptions,  and  that  of  the 
meeting-house  by  resort  to  a  lottery.  It  was  in  accord 

C  170  ] 


Historical  Address 

with  the  standards  of  the  time  thus  to  appeal  to  the  pas- 
sion for  gains  without  toil,  and  in  this  way  "the  cheer- 
ful assistance  and  encouragement"  of  the  public  in  the 
interest  of  religion  and  education  was  most  readily 
obtained.  Just  as  the  collegiate  establishment  seemed 
secure  in  its  permanent  home,  and  the  number  of  its 
students  had  grown  to  be  over  forty,  the  Revolution 
threatened  its  destruction.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1 776 
the  college  building  was  taken  for  a  barracks  and  hos- 
pital for  the  American  army,  and  when,  in  1780,  it 
ceased  to  be  needed  for  this  purpose,  it  was  at  once 
seized  for  use  as  a  hospital  for  the  French  troops.  The 
building  was  released  in  a  wretched  condition  in  1782. 
During  these  years,  the  college  exercises  were  neces- 
sarily suspended ;  but  they  were  resumed  at  the  earliest 
opportunity.  Starting  again,  with  twelve  students,  in 
1 783,  the  college  steadily  grew  until  in  1 790,  President 
Manning's  last  year,  there  were  about  seventy  in  at- 
tendance and  twenty-two  were  graduated.  We  cannot 
overestimate  the  value  of  the  fidelity  of  the  members  of 
the  Corporation  during  this  period  of  struggle  and  dis- 
tress, but  to  Manning  must  be  given  the  credit  for  the 
energy,  tact,  and  public  spirit  which  inspired  coopera- 
tion. A  forceful  preacher,  talented  instructor,  and  skil- 
ful administrator, — imposing  in  presence  and  gracious 
in  manner, —  a  man  of  piety  and  common  sense,  he  won 
for  the  institution  a  sure  place  in  the  public  esteem. 

Maxcy  and  Messer,  the  second  and  third  Presidents 
of  the  college,  were  the  fruits  of  its  own  culture.  Both 
were  pupils  of  Manning.  Maxcy  had  been  a  tutor  since 
his  graduation  in  1787; — "our  youngest  tutor"  and  a 
"  youth  of  genius,"  said  Manning.  He  was  only  twenty- 
four  when  he  took  the  president's  chair,  but  his  rare 

C    171    ] 


Brown  University 

gifts  were  soon  appreciated.  While  not  so  virile  as  Man- 
ning, he  was  more  imaginative,  more  delicate  in  his  per- 
ceptions, and  had  a  wider  range  of  learning.  A  grace- 
ful speaker,  and  the  possessor  of  unusual  aptitude  for 
teaching,  he  heightened  the  reputation  of  the  college 
during  the  ten  years  of  his  administration.  Going  from 
Rhode  Island  to  Union  College,  and  thence  to  South 
Carolina  College,  he  enjoyed  the  distinction  of  serv- 
ing in  three  presidencies  with  eminent  success.  His  suc- 
cessor, Asa  Messer,  of  the  class  of  1790,  had  been  a 
tutor  in  the  college  for  five  years, and  a  professor  for  six 
years.  He  was  of  marked  individuality, vigorous,  unpo- 
etical, sagacious;  and  for  twenty-four  years, until  1826, 
the  college  had  the  benefit  of  his  leadership.  It  was  early 
in  Messer's  time,  in  1804,  that  the  name  was  changed 
to  Brown  University,  in  honor  of  Nicholas  Brown,  of 
the  class  of  1786,  on  his  giving  ^5000  to  found  a  pro- 
fessorship of  Oratory  and  Belles-Lettres.  His  father, 
Nicholas  Brown,  had  been  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  for  the  twenty-six  years  following  its  organ- 
ization, and  he  himself  was  in  the  midst  of  a  service 
(begun  in  1791 )  which  was  to  cover  a  period  of  fifty 
years, — thirty-four  as  Trustee  and  sixteen  as  Fellow. 
It  was  also  during  Messer's  administration,  in  1811, 
that  a  medical  school  was  established ;  it  continued  until 
1828,  having  eighty-seven  graduates,  among  whom 
were  a  considerable  number  enjoying  careers  of  high 
distinction.  As  the  student  body  steadily  became  larger, 
— there  were  152  in  1821,  exclusive  of  those  in  the 
medical  school, — another  dormitory  was  needed;  and, 
in  1822,  Nicholas  Brown  erected  Hope  College,  which 
was  named  in  honor  of  Mrs.  Hope  Ives,  Mr.  Brown's 
sister.  University  Hall,  which  hitherto  had  embraced 

I  172  ] 


Historical  Address 

chapel,  offices,  library,  recitation  rooms,  dormitory, and 
commons,  now  shared  with  "Hope"  some  of  its  uses. 
But  while  the  college  rejoiced  in  two  buildings,  besides 
the  president's  house,  its  productive  funds  at  the  close 
of  President  Messer's  administration  were  only  slightly 
in  excess  of  $30,000.  This  need  not  surprise  us.  It  was 
still  the  day  of  small  things,  financially,  in  great  col- 
leges. It  has  been  estimated  that  the  productive  funds 
of  all  the  colleges  in  America  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  amounted  to  less  than  ^500,000.  It 
was  a  time  when  students  almost  paid  for  their  educa- 
tion. Yet  the  tuition  fees  at  Brown  were  small, — $20  a 
year — they  had  formerly  been  as  low  as  |i6, — and 
room  rent  was  only  ?4  a  year,  with  library  fees  of  like 
amount. 

In  its  discipline — aside  from  the  matter  of  theologi- 
cal instruction — the  college  could  not  fail  to  follow  in 
the  main  the  traditions  established  for  American  col- 
leges by  Harvard  and  Yale.  Two  of  the  original  Board 
of  Fellows  were  graduates  of  the  former,  and  one  of 
the  latter.  A  more  direct  influence  was  exerted  by  the 
College  of  New  Jersey,  the  Ahna  Mater  of  Manning, 
and  of  David  Howell,  the  first  tutor.  Not  only  is  there 
a  remarkable  correspondence  in  the  incidents  of  the 
early  history  of  the  two  colleges,  but  the  laws  and 
customs  of  Brown  were  taken  largely  from  those  of 
Princeton,  even,  we  are  told, "to  the  peculiar  stamp  of 
the  foot  by  the  visiting  officer  at  the  door  of  a  student's 
room,  which  no  student  was  allowed  to  counterfeit." 
While  the  early  discipline  was  narrow,  it  had  a  marked 
effectiveness,  as  is  shown  in  the  record  of  the  gradu- 
ates. Under  these  three  Presidents,  1085  were  admitted 
to  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  Sixty-eight  became 

c  173 : 


Brown  University 

Baptist  preachers;  among  those  were  eight  college 
presidents, Jonathan  Maxcy,Asa  Messer,Barnas  Sears, 
and  Alexis  Caswell,  of  Brown ;  Jeremiah  Chaplin, Rufus 
Babcock,and  Eliphaz  Fay,  of  Waterville ;  and  Jonathan 
Going,  of  Granville;  and  the  list  includes  the  revered 
names  of  William  Rogers,  pastor  and  educator,  David 
Benedict,  historian  of  the  Baptists,  and  Adoniram  Jud- 
son,  the  dauntless  hero  of  Christian  missions.  The 
Baptist  denomination  had  thus  been  invigorated  by 
men  trained  in  these  halls,  and  its  influence  had  been 
strengthened  by  the  prestige  of  its  representatives  in 
education.  But  this  denominational  advantage  had  not 
been  gained  at  the  expense  of  the  institution's  catho- 
licity. During  the  period  mentioned,  a  far  larger  num- 
ber of  graduates — as  was  to  be  expected  in  view  of  the 
relative  strength  of  the  denominations  of  the  time — 
entered  the  ministry  of  other  churches.  One  hundred 
and  fifty-one  became  Congregational  ministers,  among 
them  being  Willard  Preston,  President  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Vermont,  Enoch  Pond ,  President  of  Bangor  The- 
ological Seminary,  and  Edwards  A.  Park,  for  forty-five 
years  in  active  service  as  professor  at  Andover.  Twenty- 
nine  took  orders  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  including  Jas- 
per Adams,  President  of  the  College  of  Charleston  and 
of  Hobart  College,  Benjamin  Bosworth  Smith,  Bishop 
of  Kentucky,  and  George  Burgess,  Bishop  of  Maine.  In 
addition,  there  were  Wilbur  Fisk,  the  eminent  Metho- 
dist, President  of  Wesley  an  University,  and  fourteen 
Unitarian  ministers. 

Nearly  three-fourths  of  the  graduates  of  this  period 
entered  other  fields  of  activity,  and  in  their  lives  of 
varied  service  to  the  community  was  strikingly  fulfilled 
the  broad  purpose  expressed  in  the  charter.  Here  were 

[   174  ] 


Historical  Address 

trained  state  executives,  legislators,  judges,  lawyers, 
editors,  teachers,  physicians,  and  successful  merchants 
with  a  horizon  beyond  the  counting-room.  Rhode  Island 
received  a  large  share  in  this  benefit.  From  the  outset 
she  gave  many  of  her  best  men  to  the  work  of  the  Cor- 
poration. The  first  Chancellor  was  the  patriot,  Stephen 
Hopkins,  then  Governor  of  the  colony,  and  associated 
with  him  on  the  Board  of  Trustees  were  Samuel  Ward, 
his  distinguished  rival,  Josias  Lyndon  and  Joseph  Wan- 
ton, Governors  to  be,  and  others  eminent  in  the  com- 
munity. On  the  first  Board  of  Fellows  were  Joshua  Bab- 
cock,  several  times  Chief  Justice,  and  Thomas  Eyres; 
and  continuously  thereafter  on  both  boards  were  men 
of  high  distinction  in  the  state.  It  was  natural  that  the 
college  should  make  a  rich  return  to  Rhode  Island.  In 
the  early  years  of  which  we  are  speaking,  we  find 
among  the  graduates  nine  United  States  Senators  from 
this  state:  Theodore  Foster,  James  Burrill,  James  Fen- 
ner,  Jeremiah  Brown  Howell,  William  Hunter,  Na- 
than Fellows  Dixon,  Philip  Allen,  John  B.  Francis,  and 
John  H.  Clarke.  The  stalwart  James  Fenner — "Old 
Durham,"  as  he  was  called  —  was  repeatedly  elected 
Governor  of  the  state;  and  Philip  Allen,  John  B.  Fran- 
cis, and  Charles  Jackson  also  held  that  office.  Most 
notable  was  the  contribution  to  the  bar  and  bench.  In 
the  first  class  was  graduated  James  Mitchell  Varnum, 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  of  his  day.  It  was 
Varnum  who  made  the  argument  for  the  defense  in 
the  famous  case  of  Trevett  r.Weeden — tried  before 
the  Superior  Court  of  Rhode  Island  in  the  year  prior  to 
the  meeting  of  the  Federal  Convention — in  w^iich,  de- 
nouncing an  act  of  the  General  Assembly  as  unconsti- 
tutional, he  forcibly  set  forth  the  grounds  upon  which 

C    175   1 


Brown  University 

the  judiciary  should  refuse  to  give  effect  to  legislation 
contravening  the  fundamental  law  and  thus  transcend- 
ing the  assigned  limit  of  legislative  power.  We  are  told 
by  Chief  Justice  Thomas  Durfee  that  the  "generation 
after  Varnum  ushered  in  the  golden  age  of  forensic  ora- 
tory for  Rhode  Island;"  he  mentions  Burges,  Burrill, 
Robbins,  Hunter,  Whipple,  and  Atwell.  All  of  these 
were  sons  of  Brown,  save  Robbins,  and  he — a  gradu- 
ate of  Yale — was  Brown's  third  tutor.  Burges  and  Bur- 
rill were  also  Chief  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  state,  and  other  graduates  in  this  early  period  who 
held  that  office  were  Thomas  Arnold,  James  Fenner, 
Samuel  Eddy,  Job  Durfee,  Richard  W.  Greene,  Wil- 
liam R.  Staples,  Samuel  Ames,  and  George  A.  Brayton. 
Many  others  served  in  Congress  or  in  the  state  legis- 
lature. But  the  fruitage  of  the  college  work  was  by  no 
means  for  Rhode  Island  alone.  There  were  Andrew 
Pickens,  Governor  of  South  Carolina ;  Marcus  Morton, 
Governor  of  Massachusetts ;  Jared  W.  Williams,  Gov- 
ernor of  New  Hampshire;  and  James  Tallmadge, orator 
and  statesman  of  New  York.  Dwight  Foster  and  John 
Holmes  represented  Massachusetts,  and  John  Ruggles 
represented  Maine,  in  the  United  States  Senate.  There 
were  Chief  Justices  Jabez  Bowen,  of  Georgia,  Ezekiel 
Whitman,  of  Maine,  and  Asa  Aldis,  of  Vermont;  and 
Associate  Justices  Theron  Metcalf  and  Charles  E. 
Forbes,  of  Massachusetts.  In  legal  literature  Joseph  K. 
Angell  and  Samuel  Ames  won  high  place.  In  the  broad 
fields  of  international  law  and  diplomacy,  there  were 
Jonathan  Russell,  of  the  class  of  i  791 ,  one  of  the  Com- 
missioners who  negotiated  the  Treaty  of  Ghent;  Henry 
Wheaton,of  the  class  of  1802,  authority  on  international 
law;  and  William  L.  Marcy,  of  the  class  of  1808,  Jus- 

c  176 : 


Historical  Address 

tice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York,  United  States 
Senator,  Governor,  Secretary  of  War,  and  most  distin- 
guished as  Secretary  of  State.  And  in  the  forefront  of 
those  who  have  given  their  hves  in  intelhgent  endeavor, 
as  well  as  in  unselfish  devotion,  we  must  place  Horace 
Mann,  of  the  class  of  1819,  who,  vindicating  the  princi- 
ple that  **  the  property  of  the  commonwealth  is  pledged 
for  the  education  of  allof  its  youth,"  securely  established 
the  standards  of  efficient  public  instruction,  and  Sam- 
uel Gridley  Howe,  of  the  class  of  1821,  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  knights  of  American  philanthropy. 

Such  is  the  record  of  this  initial  period.  While  I  thus 
mention  the  names  of  some  of  the  more  renowned,  with 
emphatic  recognition  of  their  achievements,  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  the  college  is  honored  not  simply 
in  the  few  but  in  the  many, — in  the  hundreds  of  those 
who  in  less  prominent,  but  still  important,  places  have 
brought  to  the  intimate  relations  of  a  responsive  people 
the  stimulating  influence  of  disciplined  minds.  The  old- 
fashioned  college  was  a  place  for  study, — where  intel- 
lectual interests  and  ideals  were  ever  kept  foremost; 
and  the  manifold  activities  of  a  later  day,  many  of  them 
wholesome  and  some  distracting,  were  yet  unknown. 
We  note  in  the  early  laws  at  Brown  that  the  student 
hours  between  the  fall  and  spring  vacations  were  "  from 
morning  prayers  one  hour  before  breakfast,  and  from 
9  o'clock  a.m. until  1 2  o'clock ;  from  2  o'clock  p.m.  until 
sunset;  and  from  7  until  9  o'clock  in  the  evening;" — 
requirements  which  the  college  officers  were  supposed 
to  enforce  by  personal  supervision.  The  Faculty  was 
small,  most  of  the  instruction  being  given  by  the  Presi- 
dent, one  or  two  resident  professors,  and  a  couple  of 
tutors.  In  the  restricted  environment  of  the  academic 

[   177  ] 


Brown  University 

family  lay  not  only  the  danger  of  a  lifeless  routine,  but 
also  precious  opportunities  for  the  inspiring  influence  of 
rare  spirits,  whether  teachers  or  students.  The  impor- 
tance of  the  tutor's  work  should  not  be  overlooked ;  and 
we  may  apply  to  the  tutors  of  Brown  what  was  said  by 
Chancellor  Kent  as  to  those  of  Yale:  "The  tutors  in 
every  period  of  the  College  history  have  been  very  effi- 
cient instructors,  and  though  many  of  them  have  been, 
at  the  time,  to  'Fortune  and  to  Fame  unknown,'  yet 
it  is  certain  that  the  College  has  been  much  indebted 
for  the  elevation  of  the  standard  of  moral  sentiment,  for 
the  cultivation  of  correct  taste,  and  for  the  formation  of 
some  of  the  most  illustrious  of  its  pupils,  to  the  diligent, 
steady,  painful  and  unobtrusive  counsel  and  efforts  of 
that  meritorious  class  of  teachers."  Brown's  first  tutor, 
— and  first  professor  after  Manning, — the  distinguished 
David  Howell,  became  a  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  for  many  years  was  a  Federal  judge.  Ashur  Rob- 
bins,  the  third  tutor,  long  served  as  United  States  Sen- 
ator; and  in  addition  to  Maxcy  and  Messer,  we  find  in 
the  list  of  early  tutors  the  names  of  Jeremiah  Chaplin, 
Calvin  Park,  for  twenty-one  years  professor  at  Brown, 
Solomon  Peck ,  professor  at  Amherst,  Jasper  Adams, 
and  Horace  Mann.  We  must  also  not  fail  to  consider  the 
use,  made  by  students  of  initiative  and  ambition,  of  the 
opportunities  for  collateral  reading.  It  was  in  these  self- 
directed  efforts  that  the  brightest  minds  of  other  days 
largely  found  their  substitute  for  the  advantages  of  the 
modern  curriculum.  In  wide  reading,  suited  to  their 
individual  taste,  and  prosecuted  with  the  zeal  of  a  dis- 
coverer, the  leaders  of  the  future  not  infrequently  had 
their  intellectual  awakening.  There  was  scant  regard 

C   178   ] 


Historical  Address 

paid  to  History  and  the  Law  of  Nations  when  Henry 
Wheaton  studied  here.  But  one  of  his  classmates  thus 
described  his  early  labors :  '*  To  be  able  to  construe  and 
parse  Virgil,  Cicero,  Horace,  and  a  little  of  the  Greek 
Testament  seemed  to  be  the  main  object  of  most  of 
the  college  students  of  that  period.  Not  so  with  young 
Wheaton.  Though  he  did  not  positively  neglect  these 
tasks,  yet  his  intense  passion  for  historical  and  general 
knowledge  seemed  to  absorb  all  the  other  objects  and 
purposes  of  life.  It  manifested  itself  at  an  early  period 
of  his  collegiate  course."  Ancient  and  modern  historians 
**  were  read  and  re-read  with  the  same  intense  interest 
that  ordinary  readers  bestow  upon  the  historic  novels 
of  Scott  and  Cooper.  France  and  her  history,  the  people 
of  France  and  their  struggles  for  republican  freedom, 
were  subjects  which  he  so  frequently  discussed  while 
in  college  that  he  was  usually  called  'citizen'  Whea- 
ton. .  .  .  He  instinctively  launched  out  upon  the  great 
ocean  of  thought."  There  was  also  from  the  outset  es- 
pecially effective  work  in  the  training  of  public  speak- 
ers, which  was  reinforced  by  the  voluntary  exercises 
of  student  societies — the  Philermenian  and  United 
Brothers;  and  from  1815  to  1828  Rhode  Island's  popu- 
lar orator,  statesman,  and  jurist,  Tristam  Burges,  was 
professor  of  oratory. 

With  the  close  of  President  Messer's  administra- 
tion, we  come  to  a  turning-point  in  the  college  history. 
It  was  a  time  of  quickening  in  American  colleges, 
and  it  was  the  good  fortune  of  Brown  during  the  next 
twenty-eight  years — from  1827  to  1855 — to  have  the 
forceful  leadership  of  Francis  Wayland, one  of  thegreat 
prophets  of  the  new  era  in  American  education.  The 
curriculum  here,  as  in  other  colleges,  was  ill-adapted 

C  179  ] 


Brown  University 

to  the  demands  of  an  expanding  national  life.  Even  in 
the  classics  it  had  a  narrow  range,  and  in  the  modern 
languages,  English  literature,  history,  economics,  and 
especially  in  the  sciences,  it  was  sadly  deficient.  Said 
Professor  Tyler,  of  Amherst,  who  was  graduated  at 
that  college  in  1830:  "Greek,  Latin  and  Mathematics, 
six  times  a  week,  with  a  little  natural  philosophy  at 
the  end,  and  perhaps  a  little  rhetoric  and  logic  in  the 
middle,  was  the  curriculum  for  the  first  three  years, 
and  mental  and  moral  philosophy,  with  a  sprinkling  of 
theology  and  political  economy,  was  the  course  for  the 
fourth  year.  .  .  .  Chemistry,  Mineralogy,  Geology, 
Zoology,  Palaeontology  and  other  ologies  had  not  yet 
begun  to  distract  the  minds  of  students;  and  laborato- 
ries, museums,  cabinets,  collections  of  natural  history, 
were  to  be  the  growth  of  the  next  half  century. "There 
were  some  differences  in  arrangement  and  detail  in  the 
various  institutions,  but  the  general  features  of  the 
curriculum  were  similar.  It  should  be  said  that  chem- 
istry had  been  taught  in  the  existing  medical  schools, 
and  that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth,  it  found  a  place  in 
the  courses  of  collegiate  instruction ;  but  such  laborato- 
ries as  existed  were  absurdly  inadequate.  The  study  of 
the  other  sciences  came  in  gradually,  with  feeble  be- 
ginnings. At  the  end  of  the  second  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  economics  found  a  place  in  the  course, 
and  history  received  a  larger  share  of  attention.  Ger- 
man was  introduced  into  the  Harvard  curriculum  in 

1825. 

At  Brown,  the  courses  of  instruction  had  been  some- 
what increased  under  President  Messer,  and  among 
those  of  the   senior  year  we  find   Burlamaqui,  the 

C  180  ] 


Historical  Address 

Federalist,  and  Vattel.  Instruction  in  chemistry  had 
been  provided  in  connection  with  the  establishment  of 
the  medical  school.  Under  Wayland,  the  classical  and 
mathematical  studies  were  enlarged ;  there  were  courses 
not  only  in  chemistry,  but  in  mechanics,  astronomy, 
animal  and  vegetable  physiology,  pneumatics,  hydro- 
statics, and  geology;  and  instruction  was  given  in 
junior  and  senior  years  in  modern  languages  and 
political  economy.  It  was  also  in  the  earlier  portion 
of  Wayland's  administration  that  a  careful  effort  was 
made  to  meet  the  needs  of  special  students, — an  ar- 
rangement which  developed  into  an  English  and  Sci- 
entific course  adapted  to  a  residence  of  either  one  or 
two  years.  There  were  great  improvements  in  other 
directions.  On  his  accession  Wayland  found  the  philo- 
sophical apparatus  to  be  "almost  worthless,"  save  "as 
a  collection  of  antiquarian  specimens,"  and  the  library, 
as  he  described  it,  consisted  of  books  "old,  few  and 
miscellaneous — such,  in  general,  as  had  been  gleaned 
by  solicitation  from  private  libraries,  where  they  were 
considered  as  of  no  value."  The  apparatus  was  re- 
placed through  the  benevolence  of  Nicholas  Brown 
and  Thomas  P.  Ives  by  new  equipment  which  was 
"  adapted  to  all  the  purposes  of  illustration ;"  and  a  per- 
manent fund  was  raised  through  which  an  excellent 
library  was  built  up.  It  was  in  1834,  to  accommodate 
the  library  and  the  chapel,  that  Nicholas  Brown  gave 
Manning  Hall.  Seven  years  after,  in  order  to  provide 
for  specimens,  lecture  rooms,  and  laboratory,  Rhode 
Island  Hall  was  erected.  At  the  same  time  there  was 
built  a  new  house  for  the  President  at  the  northwest 
corner  of  Prospect  and  College  Streets ;  and  there  for 
the  next  sixty  years  authority  had  its  official  residence 

C    :8l    ] 


Brown  University 

and  students  kept  a  watchful  eye  upon  the  movements 
of  its  occupants.  Toward  the  two  buildings  last  named, 
Mr.  Brown  gave  $10,000,  and  a  similar  amount  was 
subscribed  by  the  citizens  of  Providence  and  its  vicinity. 
Soon  after,  the  career  of  this  broad-minded  merchant 
and  eminent  patron  of  the  University  came  to  its  close. 
His  total  gifts,  including  his  bequests,  amounted  to 
$  1 60 ,000 ,  but  more  important  than  this  total ,  impressive 
indeed  in  those  days,  was  the  timeliness  of  his  benefac- 
tions and  the  example  thus  set  to  other  friends  of  the 
college,  both  in  this  community  and  elsewhere. 

The  resident  Faculty  was  increased,  so  that  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  thirties  there  were,  in  addition  to  the  Presi- 
dent, six  professors  and  three  tutors.  The  work  of  Pro- 
fessors William  Giles  Goddard  and  Romeo  Elton,  who 
had  been  graduated  at  Brown  under  Messer,  had  begun 
near  the  close  of  his  administration;  and  in  the  early 
years  of  Wayland  they  were  joined  by  Alexis  Caswell, 
George  Ide  Chace,  William  Gammell,  and  Horatio  B. 
Hackett,  forming  a  most  distinguished  company.  After 
Goddard  and  Elton  had  retired,  James  Robinson  Boise 
and  John  Larkin  Lincoln  became  professors.  Chace, 
Gammell,  Boise,  and  Lincoln  were  graduated  under 
Wayland,  and  had  already  been  tutors  in  the  college ; 
and  there  were  other  tutors  between  1830  and  1850, 
also  sons  of  Brown,  whose  abilities  and  character  won  for 
them  noted  careers:  George  Burgess — already  named, 
of  Messer's  last  class — and  the  following,  who  were 
students  of  Wayland's  time:  Mark  Antony  De  Wolfe 
Howe,  Bishop  of  Central  Pennsylvania,  James  Tift 
Champlin,PresidentofWaterville  College,  Arthur  Sav- 
age Train,  professor  at  Newton,  Nathan  Bishop,  one  of 
the  most  influential  laymen  in  the  Baptist  denomina- 

[  182  ] 


Historical  Address 

tion, Charles  Smith  Bradley, Chief  Justice  of  the  Rhode 
Island  Supreme  Court  and  later  Professor  of  Jurispru- 
dence at  Harvard,  Thomas  Allen  Jenckes,  for  many 
years  a  member  of  Congress, and  Henry  S.  Frieze,  who, 
with  Professor  Boise,  long  adorned  the  faculty  of  the 
University  of  Michigan.  Could  any  college  be  more 
fortunate  than  to  have  a  Wayland  for  its  president  and 
such  instructors? 

But  to  Wayland's  prophetic  eye  the  educational 
scheme  of  the  time  appeared  far  from  satisfactory.  He 
had  the  vision  of  democracy  and  of  its  educational  as 
well  as  its  spiritual  needs.  He  had  little  patience  with 
the  fetters  of  the  old  curriculum ,  and  was  not  content 
with  such  advance  as  had  been  made  in  enlarging  the 
scope  of  college  work.  The  permanent  funds  in  1849 
remained  substantially  what  they  had  been  in  1827. 
Thenumber  of  students  entering  the  college,  which  had 
increased  until  1835,  had  fallen  off  in  later  years,  and 
he  believed  that  radical  action  was  necessary.  His  con- 
victions had  been  ripened  not  only  by  the  study  of  colle- 
giate conditions  in  America,  but  by  personal  examina- 
tion of  methods  in  England.  To  the  support  of  liberal 
ideals  he  brought  the  force  of  his  dominating  person- 
ality;  and  in  1849,  in  an  intense  desire  to  bring  about 
a  change,  he  resigned  the  presidency.  The  Corporation 
protested ;  and  the  resignation  was  withdrawn  upon  the 
appointment  of  a  committee,  as  the  chairman  of  which 
he  submitted  his  epoch-making  report  of  1850.  He  re- 
viewed the  demands  of  the  new  era.  "  Lands  were  to  be 
surveyed,  roads  to  be  constructed,  ships  to  be  built  and 
navigated,  soils  of  every  kind,  and  under  every  variety 
of  climate,  were  to  be  cultivated,  manufactures  were  to 
be  established,  which  must  soon  come  into  competition 

[   183  3 


Brown  University 

with  those  of  more  advanced  nations,  and,  in  a  word, 
all  the  means  which  science  has  provided  to  aid  the  pro- 
gress of  civilization  must  be  employed,  if  this  youth- 
ful republic  would  place  itself  abreast  of  the  empires  of 
Europe.  .  .  .  What  could  Virgil  and  Horace  and  Homer 
and  Demosthenes,  with  a  little  mathematics  and  natu- 
ral philosophy,  do  toward  developing  the  untold  re- 
sources of  this  continent?"  The  pith  of  it  was  that  the 
American  college  had  failed  to  meet  the  wants  of  the 
community,  and  had  been  proceeding  ill-advisedly  in 
seeking  to  meet  the  new  demands  by  crowding  a  fixed 
term  of  four  years  with  a  large  number  of  studies  of 
which  only  a  smattering  could  be  obtained.  His  conclu- 
sions were  in  substance  as  follows :  That  the  system  of 
having  a  fixed  term  must  be  abandoned ;  that  every  stu- 
dent should  be  allowed  within  certain  limits  to  carry  on 
a  greater  or  less  number  of  courses,  as  he  might  choose ; 
that  the  time  allowed  to  each  course  should  be  deter- 
mined by  its  nature ;  that  the  various  courses  should  be 
so  arranged  that,  so  far  as  practicable,  "  every  student 
might  study  what  he  chose,  all  that  he  chose,  and  noth- 
ing but  what  he  chose," but  that  the  Faculty,  at  the  re- 
quest of  parents  or  guardians,  should  have  authority  to 
assign  particular  studies;  that  every  course  once  com- 
menced should  be  continued  to  completion ;  that  no  stu- 
dent should  be  admitted  as  a  candidate  for  a  degree 
unless  he  had  honorably  sustained  his  examination  in 
such  studies  as  might  be  ordained  by  the  Corporation, 
but  that  no  one  should  be  required  to  proceed  to  a 
degree  unless  he  chose,  every  student  being  entitled  to 
a  certificate  of  his  proficiency. 

A  variety  of  courses  were  suggested,  and  it  was 
recommended  that  the  system  of  instruction  should  be 

C    184   ] 


Historical  Address 

modified  and  extended  in  the  manner  indicated,  as  soon 
as  ?i 25,000  should  be  added  to  the  University  funds. 
The  money  was  raised,  and  the  *'new  system"  was 
introduced.  The  courses,  in  addition  to  subjects  pre- 
viously taught,  embraced  didactics,  civil  engineering, 
the  application  of  chemistry  to  the  arts,  and  the  study 
of  agriculture.  The  last-named  course,  however,  was 
not  given.  The  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Philosophy  was 
offered,  and  both  this  degree  and  that  of  Bachelor  of 
Arts  could  be  had  at  the  end  of  three  years,  while  a 
course  which  could  be  completed  in  four  years  led  to  the 
degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  In  each  course  for  a  degree 
there  was  some  opportunity — although  not  a  wide  one 
— for  the  selection  of  subjects.  The  number  of  students 
rose:  there  w^ere  283  in  1853-54,  but  there  was  a  con- 
siderable reduction  in  later  years.  The  practical  courses 
were  not  as  popular  as  it  had  been  supposed  they 
would  be.  Few  students  chose  them,  and  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Philosophy  w^as  not  much  in  demand. 
It  became  clear  that  the  repute  of  the  University  was 
being  endangered  by  the  low  standard  of  scholar- 
ship required  for  the  degrees  of  A.M.  and  A.B. ;  and 
soon  after  President  Wayland's  retirement  in  1 855,  the 
former  was  restored  to  the  position  it  had  formerly  held 
and  four  years  were  required  for  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Arts.  But,  despite  some  disappointments  which  at- 
tended the  introduction  of  the  new  system,  a  principle 
was  involved  which  could  not  fail  to  have  extended 
application  in  the  development  of  our  educational  meth- 
ods, and  its  emphatic  indorsement  by  Wayland  has 
had  a  permanent  influence.  Plainly  it  was  not  Way- 
land's  intention  to  dispense  with  strict  discipline.  An 
indefatigable  worker,  he  desired  to  inculcate  habits  of 

c  185 : 


Brown  University 

thoroughness,  and  to  enrich  as  well  as  to  extend  the 
courses  of  instruction.  At  the  very  beginning  of  his 
administration  he  had  insisted  that  the  officers  should 
*'  be  actual  residents  within  the  walls  of  the  college"  in 
order  to  insure  proper  supervision;  and  text-books,  ex- 
cept in  the  languages,  were  not  allowed  in  the  recita- 
tion rooms.  His  intense  desire  was  to  increase  the  ser- 
vice of  the  institution  to  the  community,  and  almost  his 
last  words — at  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
college — expressed  this  thought:  **I  hope  that  you, 
gentlemen,  may  see  these  views  familiar  as  household 
words  to  the  whole  civilized  world,  so  that  every  semi- 
nary of  higher  education  shall  scatter  broadcast,  over 
the  whole  community, over  every  rank  and  every  class, 
over  every  profession  and  every  occupation  in  life,  the 
benefits  of  knowledge  and  the  blessings  of  religion." 
Wayland's  keen  and  vigorous  intellect,  his  strength 
of  will,  his  tremendous  energy,  his  profound  religious 
convictions,  the  constant  display  of  his  masterfulness, 
left  a  lasting  mark  upon  the  character  of  his  pupils. 
There  was  undoubtedly  an  imperiousness,  which  at 
times  kindled  opposition ;  but  there  was  also  the  inevita- 
ble response  of  youth  to  the  quickening  of  the  master 
mind.  Approximately  one-third  of  the  graduates  under 
Wayland  entered  the  ministry, — a  larger  proportion,  I 
believe,  than  at  any  other  period  in  the  college  history, 
— and  there  was  an  especially  striking  contribution  to 
education.  I  may  mention,  in  addition  to  those  already 
named,  Ezekiel  Oilman  Robinson,  the  seventh  presi- 
dent of  Brown,  and  Samuel  Stillman  Greene,  Albert 
Harkness,  Robinson  Potter  Dunn,  John  W.  P.  Jenks, 
and  Jeremiah  Lewis  Diman,  of  the  Brown  Faculty; 
Ebenezer  Dodge,  President  of  Colgate;  Heman  Lin- 

[    186   ] 


Historical  Address 

coin,  professor  at  Newton;  Henry  G.  Weston,  Presi- 
dent of  Crozer ;  Francis  Way  land ,  Dean  of  the  Yale  Law 
School ;  James  P.  Boyce,  President  of  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist Theological  Seminary  ;  George  Park  Fisher,  pro- 
fessor in  the  Yale  DivinitySchool;  James  Burrill  Angell, 
President  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  who  for  eight 
years  was  a  professor  at  Brown;  James  O.  Murray, 
Dean  of  Princeton  College;  Edward  H.  Magill,  Presi- 
dent of  Swarthmore;  Alexander  Burgess,  Bishop  of 
Quincy;  and  George  Dana  Boardman,  preacher  and 
writer.  There  were  Governors  John  Henry  Clifford,  of 
Massachusetts ;  Samuel  Coney,  of  Maine ;  Elisha  Dyer, 
Henry  B.  Anthony,  and  Augustus  O.  Bourn,  of  Rhode 
Island;  and  Pendleton  Murrah,  of  Texas.  Henry  B. 
Anthony  sat  in  the  United  States  Senate  for  twenty- 
five  years,  and  other  graduates  of  Wayland's  time  in 
that  body  were  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  of  Connecticut,  and 
Samuel  Greene  Arnold,  of  Rhode  Island, — the  historian 
of  the  state.  There  were  Chief  Justices  Marcus  Mor- 
ton,of  Massachusetts,  Franklin  J.  Dickman, of  Ohio,  and 
Thomas  Durfee,  of  Rhode  Island.  And  to  this  partial 
roll  of  distinction  may  be  added  Benjamin  F.  Thomas, 
Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts; Samuel  Sullivan  Cox,  for  twenty-two  years 
in  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives ;  William 
Goddard, Trustee  of  Brown  for  fifty  years  and  its  Chan- 
cellor for  nineteen  years ;  Rowland  Hazard,  Trustee  for 
fourteen  years,  and  Fellow  for  nine  years;  Edward  L. 
Pierce,  the  biographer  of  Charles  Sumner;  and  Alex- 
ander Lyman  Holley,  engineer. 

Following  the  administration  of  Wayland,  the  presi- 
dencies of  Barnas  Sears  ( 1855-1867)  and  Alexis  Cas- 
well (1868-1872)  were  marked  by  substantial  prog- 

C  187  ] 


Brown  University 

ress.  President  Sears  was  a  man  of  deep  learning,  and 
his  executive  ability  had  been  tested  by  his  work  as 
Horace  Mann's  successor  in  the  Massachusetts  Board 
of  Education.  It  was  a  period  of  necessary  adjustments 
at  Brown,  in  order  to  maintain  suitable  standards  and 
at  the  same  time  to  continue  the  offers  of  practical 
courses.  Then  there  arose  the  sad  and  serious  dis- 
turbances of  the  Civil  War.  Brown,  like  other  colleges, 
gave  of  her  best  to  the  support  of  the  Union ;  and  stu- 
dents and  graduates  enlisted  in  large  numbers.  Despite 
the  strain  of  the  struggle.  President  Sears  secured  a 
large  increase  in  productive  funds;  and  with  the  further 
gain  under  President  Caswell — whose  brief  adminis- 
tration crowned  forty  years  of  service  as  professor — 
these  funds  reached  a  total  of  over  |6oo,ooo.  The  early 
part  of  this  period  will  ever  be  memorable  in  our 
annals  as  the  time  when  there  went  forth  from  these 
halls  Richard  Olney ,of  the  class  of  1 856,  and  John  Hay, 
of  the  class  of  1858, — two  great  Secretaries  of  State. 
Among  other  graduates  under  President  Sears — if  I 
may  venture  a  selection  from  so  many  eminent  names 
— were  Nathaniel  P.  Hill,  of  the  class  of  1 856,  teacher 
at  Brown  and  United  States  Senator  from  Colorado; 
Robert  Hale  Ives  Goddard,  of  1858,  who  for  twenty- 
one  years  has  been  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Fellows ; 
William  Williams  Keen,  of  1859,  eminent  in  surgery, 
for  twenty-two  years  a  Trustee,  and  nineteen  years  a 
Fellow;  Henry  Kirke  Porter,  of  i860.  Fellow  for  fif- 
teen years ;  Arnold  Buffum  Chace,  of  1 866,  Trustee  for 
thirty-eight  years  and  our  present  Chancellor;  and 
Robert  H.  Thurston,  of  1859,  and  Elmer  L.  Corthell, 
of  1867,  distinguished  in  engineering.  The  class  of 
1861    gave  to  Rhode  Island  three  Chief  Justices  in 

[  188  n 


Historical  Address 

Charles  Matteson,  John  Henry  Stiness,  and  William 
Wilberforce  Douglas.  Charles  W.Lippitt,  who  became 
Governor,  was  graduated  in  1 865, and  Nathan  Fellows 
Dixon,  who  went  to  the  United  States  Senate,  was  in 
the  class  of  1869.  From  the  classes  of  i860  to  1865 
there  entered  the  ministry  Adoniram  Judson  Gordon, 
Wayland  Hoyt,  Henry  Sweetser  Burrage,  Josiah  N. 
Cushing,  and  Edward  Judson.  To  the  Brown  Faculty 
came  Timothy  Whiting  Bancroft,  of  the  class  of  1859; 
Benjamin  F.  Clarke  and  John  Howard  Appleton,  of 
1 863 ;  William  Whitman  Bailey,  of  1 864;  and  William 
Carey  Poland,  of  1868.  And  the  class  of  1870  gave  to 
the  University  Alonzo  Williams,  Nathaniel  F.  Davis, 
Wilfred  H.  Munro,  and  Elisha  Benjamin  Andrews. 

When  Brown  had  completed  one  hundred  years, her 
graduates — excluding  those  holding  advanced  and  hon- 
orary degrees — numbered  2184.  They  now  number 
6843.  At  the  Centennial  Anniversary,  President  Sears 
thus  reviewed  the  past:  "The  number  of  the  Faculty, 
consisting,  at  first,  of  but  one  or  two,  has  increased  to 
ten.  Instead  of  the  one  college  edifice  of  the  days  of 
Manning  and  of  Maxcy,  we  have  five.  The  Library  , 

of  five  hundred  miscellaneous  books  .  .  .  has  grown  to  '-^ 
thirty  thousand  choice  volumes  in  the  best  of  order." 
Now, there  are  109  on  the  teaching  and  administrative 
staff;  the  college  buildings,  instead  of  being  five — or 
six,  including  the  President's  house, — are  thirty;  and 
the  library  of  30,000  volumes  in  President  Sears's  day 
has  become — with  its  many  special  collections — a  li- 
brary of  210,000,  exclusive  of  the  John  Carter  Brown 
Library,  which  has  25,000  volumes.  1/ 

This  extraordinary  growth  is  familiar  to  us  all ;  it  has 
taken  place  under  the  eyes  of  those  still  in  the  strength 

C  189  ] 


Brown  University 

of  middle  life.  For  the  most  part,  it  is  the  gain  of  the 
past  twenty-five  years.  But  before  that,  there  were  sev- 
enteen years  under  President  Robinson  (1872-1889) 
of  earnest,  driving  effort,  when  needs  were  clearly  de- 
fined and  important  advances  were  made.  I  cannot  speak 
of  the  teachers  of  this  period  without  expressing  a  pro- 
found sense  of  personal  obligation.  President  Robinson 
himself — majestic  and  severe  —seemed  to  incarnate  the 
moral  law.  It  matters  little  what  system  of  philosophy 
he  favored ;  the  permanent  lesson  that  he  taught  was 
the  obligation  of  manhood.  He  despised  cant  and  hated 
sham.  He  shook  youth  out  of  carelessness  and  indiffer- 
ence into  a  realization  of  individual  responsibility  and 
power;  and  the  student  went  forth  from  his  instruction 
with  a  new  birth  of  purpose  and  courage,  hstening  to 
the  inner  voice: 

"  JV/ien  Duty  whispers  /ow,  Thou  must, 
The  youth  replies,  I  can." 

Professor  Diman  was  fascinating  in  his  exhibition  of 
intellectual  mastery.  His  unusual  acumen,  lucidity,  can- 
dor, and  breadth  of  vision,  his  rhetorical  skill,  which 
gained  its  effects  without  sacrifice  of  accuracy  or  sin- 
cerity,— his  native  dignity ,  and  entire  freedom  from  ec- 
centricity and  affectation, — made  him  a  prince  of  teach- 
ers. One  was  not  left  in  a  state  of  idle  admiration, — as 
a  spectator  of  a  brilliant  performance, — but  was  stimu- 
lated to  the  highest  pitch  of  effort,  and  heroic  endeav- 
ors in  individual  research  supplemented  the  attractive 
labors  of  the  class-room.  Lincoln  and  Harkness,  the 
great  exponents  of  the  classics, — it  is  difficult  to  think 
of  Brown  without  them, — were  in  the  full  maturity  of 
their  powers.  Who  can  forget  the  gracious  personality 

C  190  ] 


Historical  Address 

and  unflagging  interest  of  Harkness ;  or  the  winning 
smile  which  iUumined  the  face  of  Lincohi,  whose  rare 
spirit  admitted  us  to  the  most  delightful  fellowship,  as 
with  keen  analysis  and  exquisite  sensibility  he  opened 
to  us  the  treasures  of  classic  literature.  I  wish  that  I 
might  speak  with  particularity  of  others;  but  it  must 
suffice  to  say  that  during  the  Robinson  administra- 
tion, an  exceptionally  able  group  of  teachers  laid  the 
foundations  for  the  broader  work  in  which  the  college 
was  to  engage  in  the  coming  years.  When  vacancies 
occurred,  men  of  power  were  appointed  to  fill  them. 
Courses  of  instruction  and  opportunities  for  scientific 
work  were  largely  extended;  six  professorships  and 
two  assistant  professorships  were  created.  Standards 
were  raised ;  the  range  of  electiveswas  increased;  grad- 
uate work  was  encouraged  and  began  to  assume  im- 
portance. The  physical  equipment  was  much  improved. 
The  benevolence  of  friends  gave  to  the  University 
a  new  library  building,  Slater  Hall,  and  Sayles  Hall, 
which  were  completed,  in  swift  succession,  between 
the  years  1878  and  1881.  University  Hall  was  reno- 
vated; and  before  the  end  of  Robinson's  time,  Wilson 
Hall  was  in  the  course  of  erection,  the  Lyman  gift  had 
been  received, and  the  Ladd  Astronomical  Observatory 
had  been  offered.  Strong  and  progressive  as  was  this 
administration,  the  number  of  students  at  its  close,  in 
1889,  was  only  268.  The  number  in  attendance  last 
year  was  976.  As  many  have  been  graduated  with  the 
first  degree,  in  the  past  twenty-five  years,  as  in  the  pre- 
ceding one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years. 

Following  President  Robinson,  there  came  to  the 
leadership  of  the  University  a  man  of  extraordinary 
force  and  popularity. No  president  or  teacher  at  Brown 

C  191  ] 


Brown  University 

has  ever  had  greater  powder  over  young  men  than  had 
President  Andrews ;  they  made  instant  response  to  the 
appeal  of  his  commanding  virility.  Numbers  grew  apace ; 
and  each  year  showed  a  remarkable  gain,  until,  in  the 
year  1896-97,  there  were  914  students  taking  the  reg- 
ular examinations  of  the  University,  and  there  were 
enrolled  90  instructors  and  other  officers.  In  the  suc- 
ceeding year,  the  last  under  President  Andrews,  there 
was  a  decrease  in  the  number  of  students, but  the  total 
still  reached  866.  Of  these,  101  were  graduate  students, 
and  149  were  undergraduate  women, — students  in 
the  Women's  College,  which  had  been  established  in 
1891,  and  for  which  Pembroke  Hall  had  been  provided 
in  1897.  This  sudden  growth  was  a  tremendous  strain 
upon  the  facilities  of  the  University.  Early  in  the  admin- 
istration of  President  Andrews,  the  new  physics  labora- 
tory ( Wilson  Hall)  was  completed ;  the  Lyman  Gym- 
nasium and  the  Ladd  Observatory  were  built;  and 
Hope  College  was  improved.  A  few  years  later,  Maxcy 
Hall  provided  additional  dormitory  accommodations. 
There  had  been  a  notable  enlargement  of  the  cur- 
riculum, and  of  the  teaching  staff,  which  had  brought  to 
Brown  new  men  of  first-rate  ability;  and  the  strength 
of  the  departments  of  instruction  matched  the  remark- 
able growth  in  numbers.  But  there  had  been  little  addi- 
tion to  the  endowment.  It  had  grown  to  nearly  a  mil- 
lion dollars  under  President  Robinson,  and  the  gain 
under  President  Andrews  brought  the  University  funds 
to  only  a  little  over  $1 ,1 25,000.  The  increased  income 
from  tuition  fees  did  not  meet  the  added  expenses;  the 
teaching  staff  was  inadequately  paid;  and  an  extension 
of  the  University  plant  and  a  greatly  enlarged  endow- 
ment were  imperatively  needed. 


Historical  Address 

Within  the  past  fifteen  years,  under  President  Faunce, 
these  wants  have  in  large  measure  been  supplied. 
The  urgent  call  for  aid  met  with  an  early  and  gener- 
ous response.  In  lyoo,  the  endowment  gained  a  mil- 
lion dollars,  and  another  million  in  1901, — which  in- 
cluded the  John  Carter  Brown  Library  Fund,  hi  1912, 
a  third  million  was  contributed  to  the  University  funds; 
these  now  amount  to  $4,466,243.92 — the  increase 
during  the  present  administration  being  almost  three 
times  the  total  endowment  secured  in  the  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  previous  years  of  the  University 
life.  The  Administration  Building;  Rockefeller  Hall; 
the  Engineering  Building;  Caswell  Hall;  the  Colgate 
Hoyt  swimming  pool;  the  improvement  of  University 
Hall;  the  gymnasium  of  the  Women's  College,  and 
Miller  Hall,  its  residence  building;  the  Marston  Field 
House,  erected  on  Andrews  Field,  are  all  gifts  and 
additions  of  recent  years  meeting  important  needs. 
The  John  Carter  Brown  Library  building  houses  a  col- 
lection of  inestimable  value  to  the  students  of  Ameri- 
can history.  Three  years  ago,  the  completion  of  the 
John  Hay  Library  gave  us  one  of  the  most  attractive 
and  well-appointed  library  buildings  in  the  country, — 
a  lasting  memorial  to  one  of  America's  greatest  states- 
men. During  this  period,  the  campus  has  been  adorned 
by  the  erection  of  the  Van  Wickle  Gates,  the  Carrie 
Tower,  and  other  memorial  structures.  The  work  of 
improvement  still  continues,  and  at  this  moment  the 
new  Arnold  Biological  Laboratory  is  in  course  of  con- 
struction. These  advances  evidence  sagacious  leader- 
ship, the  earnest  cooperation  of  the  members  of  the 
Corporation,  the  deep  interest  of  the  alumni,  and  the 
generosity  of  many  friends. 

C  193  ] 


Brown  University- 
Courses  of  instruction  have  been  multiplied  until 
there  are  twenty-six  main  groups  with  576  subdivi- 
sions, including  increased  provision  for  advanced  and 
graduate  work.  The  quality  of  the  teaching  of  the  Fac- 
ulty, I  believe,  has  never  been  better;  and  it  is  particu- 
larly gratifying  to  be  able  to  record  the  fact  that  pro- 
vision has  been  made  for  protecting  the  future  of  our 
teachers  by  a  pension  system  established  by  Brown  out 
of  her  own  resources.  The  Women's  College  has  been 
most  successful.  As  was  said  by  President  Faunce  in  his 
report  of  1912:  "Our  Women's  College  has  the  same 
Faculty,  the  same  courses  of  study  for  a  degree,  the 
same  examinations, the  same  diploma,  as  our  men's  col- 
lege. But  its  hall  of  residence  and  its  class-rooms  are  on 
a  separate  campus,  its  instruction  has  a  distinct  quality 
due  to  the  separate  environment,  and  its  student  or- 
ganizations and  publications  and  its  entire  social  life 
are  separately  organized."  In  this  manner  has  been 
solved  the  problem  "of  providing  coordinate  instruc- 
tion;" while  "in  the  graduate  department  at  Brown  as 
at  every  American  University,  men  and  women  meet  in 
the  same  class-rooms  and  under  the  same  conditions." 

''''Ill  fits  the  abstemious  Muse  a  crorvn  to  xveave 
For  living"  broxus;  ill  Jits  them  to  received 

The  tribute  which  friendship  and  esteem  would  prompt 
must  wait  the  more  appropriate  utterance  of  later  an- 
niversaries, when  the  work  of  the  present  President 
and  Professors  of  Brown  will  find  its  fitting  recognition. 
Nor  is  it  possible  to  describe,  even  briefly,  within  the 
limits  imposed  by  this  occasion,  the  countless  events  of 
interest  in  our  history,  the  origin  and  survival  of  col- 
lege customs,  the  development  of  athletics,  the  growth 

C  194  J 


Historical  Address 

of  student  societies,  and  the  varied  activities  of  the  stu- 
dent body.  It  is  fortunate  that  this  anniversary  is  made 
memorable  by  the  publication  of  an  impartial  and  com- 
prehensive History  portraying  the  inner  life  of  the  Uni- 
versity during  its  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Brown,  with  fresh  vigor  and  newly  equipped,  faces 
the  widening  opportunities  of  the  twentieth  century, 
alertand  confident.lt  has  been, and  must  remain, demo- 
cratic. Probably  nowhere  are  social  standards  so  just 
as  in  American  universities.  Snobbery  has  no  place  at 
Brown.  Theyoung  man  who  is  working  his  way  through 
college  takes  his  place  to-day,  as  in  earlier  times,  by  the 
side  of  his  classmates  who  have  the  apparent  advan- 
tages of  fortune,  and  both  are  esteemed  for  what  they 
are  and  for  what  they  can  do,  and  not  for  what  they 
have.  American  youth  is  wholesome,  but  it  is  no  small 
part  of  the  duty  of  the  college  to  maintain  the  standards 
of  true  worth  which  have  made  the  college  in  so  large 
a  measure  the  nursery  of  the  nation's  strength.  This 
is  no  place  for  luxurious  idling.  We  are  not  desirous  of 
supporting  a  social  club  for  young  Philistines.lt  is  grati- 
fying that  college  halls  are  crowded,  and  that  Ameri- 
can social  life  is  permeated,  perhaps  as  never  before, 
by  the  influences  of  university  associations.  But  in  this 
time  of  softer  living,  when  we  are  exposed  to  the  reac- 
tions of  prosperity,  and  when  agreeable  diversions  are 
multiplied,  we  must  be  solicitous  to  preserve  the  ancient 
altars,  and  to  insure  the  continued  dominance  of  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  interests. 

Brown  has  been,  and  must  remain,  liberal  and  non- 
sectarian  in  its  training.  Happily, we  have  witnessed  the 
end  of  the  old  sectarian  antagonisms ;  but  we  must  ever 
be  on  our  guard  in  this  country  against  the  recrudes- 

C    195   ] 


Brown  University 

cence  of  bigotry.  We  shall  always  have  reason  to  take 
pride  in  the  part  this  college  has  had  in  the  emancipa- 
tion of  higher  education;  in  promoting  "perfect  free- 
dom in  religious  concernments,"  while  at  the  same  time 
conserving  the  opportunities  for  religious  culture.  We 
must  never  lose  the  ideals  of  Wayland  with  respect 
to  the  breadth  of  the  service  of  higher  institutions  of 
learning,  or  fail  to  remember  that  the  University  exists 
for  the  community  and  not  the  community  for  the  Uni- 
versity; and  that  the  constant  endeavor  should  be  made 
to  adjust  the  one  more  perfectly  to  the  needs  of  the 
other.  The  roots  of  Brown  are  struck  deep  in  Rhode  Is- 
land soil.  It  is  not  a  state  institution;  it  does  not  derive 
support  from  the  state,  nor  is  it  directed  by  the  state. 
But  it  has  ever  had  a  most  intimate  relation  to  the  life 
of  the  people  of  Rhode  Island;  about  it  cluster  the  mem- 
ories of  statesmen  and  philanthropists — of  educators 
and  of  men  of  affairs — whose  lives  have  largely  made 
the  history  of  both  state  and  University.  May  we  not 
expect  that  in  the  future,  in  the  enlarged  service  of  the 
University, — in  research,  in  opportunities  for  scientific 
and  technical  training,  in  the  ministry  of  liberal  cul- 
ture, in  bringing  expert  assistance  to  the  expanding 
work  of  governmental  administration, — there  will  be 
peculiar  benefits  to  Rhode  Island,  thus  making  this 
institution,  through  a  wise  adjustment  and  coordina- 
tion, the  fitting  crown  of  the  educational  activities  of  a 
prosperous  people. 

But  Rhode  Island  rejoices  that  the  University  is  not 
parochial.  Its  roots  are  here,  but — as  with  other  uni- 
versities— its  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nation. 
Its  interests  are  national,  and  throughout  the  land  its 
graduates  to-day  are  singing  its  praises  and  exhibiting 

[    196  ] 


Historical  Address 

the  results  of  its  training.  Wheeler  at  the  University 
of  California,  Horr  at  Newton,  Mary  E.  Woolley  at 
Mount  Holyoke,  Meiklejohn  at  Amherst, and — now  — 
Bumpus  at  Tufts  illustrate  the  range  of  its  influence. 
We  need  have  no  misgiving  as  to  the  continuance  of 
this  broad  service,  with  ever-increasing  power,  if  we 
can  conserve  the  sources  of  its  vigorous  life.  Let  us  not 
forget  that  with  the  multiplication  of  facts  to  be  taught, 
with  the  extension  of  facilities  for  investigation  and 
experiment,  with  the  enlarged  provision  of  laborato- 
ries, shops,  and  libraries,  the  greatest  of  all  resources 
must  still  be  found  in  teachers  of  vision  and  inspiration, 
who,  while  eminent  as  specialists,  in  their  simple  living, 
strength  of  purpose,  and  obedience  to  the  higher  call, 
open  the  eyes  of  youth  to  the  vision  of  what  is  best  and 
enduring. 

May  great  spirits  continue  to  irradiate  her  work,  and 
may  even  larger  blessings  than  those  of  the  past  we 
gratefully  review  fill  the  coming  years  of  old  Brown ! 
We  cannot  repay  our  debt  to  our  Mother, —  cherish- 
ing and  beloved, — but  we  can  remember  our  obliga- 
tion, and  by  devotion  to  her  interest  we  can  aid  in  the 
fulfillment  of  our  wish  for  her  prosperity.  Let  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  Brown  continue  to  attest  their  loyalty, 
and  her  future  is  secure. 


[   197  3 


Presentation  of  Delegates 

UPON  the  conclusion  of  the  Historical  Address, 
the  delegates  from  institutions  of  learning  were 
presented  to  the  President  and  the  Chancellor  by  Pro- 
fessor William  MacDonald,  George  L.  Littlefield  Pro- 
fessor of  American  History.  Professor  MacDonald  was 
assisted  in  the  presentation  by  Professors  Potter,  Bene- 
dict, Huntington,  and  Dunning.  During  the  exercises 
the  orchestra  played  the  "Salut  d'Amour,"  by  Elgar, 
and  the  "Processional,"  by  Kretschmer.  Many  of  the 
delegates  brought  congratulatory  addresses  from  the 
institutions  represented  by  them,  which  they  handed  to 
President  Faunce  as  they  were  presented  to  him.  The 
list  of  delegates  from  institutions  in  foreign  countries 
was  as  follows: 

The  University  of  Oxford,  the  Rt.  Rev.  Edward  Melville 
Parker,  Bishop  of  New  Hampshire. 

The  University  of  Cambridge,  the  Ven.  Archdeacon  William 
Cunningham,  Trinity  College,  and  Professor  Frank  Morley , 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

The  University  of  Glasgow,  Professor  Norman  Kemp  Smith, 
Princeton  University. 

The  University  of  Edinburgh,  Principal  William  Peterson, 
McGill  University. 

The  Royal  Frederick's  University,  Christiania,  Norway, 
Professor  N.  Wille. 

The  Universffy  of  London,  Dr.  Michael  Francis  O'Reilly, 
Manhattan  College. 

The  University  of  Durham,  Professor  Reinhold  Frederich 
Alfred  Hoernle,  Armstrong  College,  Ne^^•castle-on-Tyne. 

C    >98   ] 


Presentation  of  Delegates 

University  of  Manchester,  Professor  John  William  Cunliffe, 
Columbia  University. 

The  Universfty  of  New  Zealand,  President  Richard  Cock- 
burn  Maclaurin,  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 

The  University  of  Wales,  Principal  Sir  Harry  R.  Reichel, 
University  College  of  North  Wales. 

The  list  of  delegates  from  institutions  in  the  United 
States  was  as  follows: 

Harvard  University,  President  Abbott  La^^Tence  Lowell,  Pro- 
fessor Frank  William  Taussig,  and  Francis  Rawle,  Esq. 

College  of  William  and  Mary,  President  Lyon  Gardiner 
Tyler. 

Yale  University,  President  Arthur  Twining  Hadley. 

University  of  Pennsylvania,  Provost  Edgar  Fahs  Smith. 

Princeton  University,  President  John  Grier  Hibben. 

Columbia  University,  Provost  William  Henry  Carpenter,  Pro- 
fessor Arthur  Horace  Blanchard,  and  Professor  EJijah 
William  Bagster-Collins. 

Rutgers  College,  President  William  Henry  Steele  Demarest. 

Dartmouth  College,  President  Ernest  Fox  Nichols  and  Pro- 
fessor Frank  Arthur  Updyke. 

Unfversity  of  the  State  of  New  York,  President  John  Huston 
Finley  and  Hon.  Charles  Beatty  Alexander. 

Universffy  of  Vermont,  President  Guy  Potter  Benton. 

Williams  College,  President  Harry  Augustus  Garfield. 

Union  College,  President  Charles  Alexander  Richmond. 

Middlebury  College,  President  John  Martin  Thomas  and 
James  M.  Gifford,  Esq. 

Andover  Theological  Seminary,  President  Albert  Parker 
Fitch. 

C   199  H 


Brown  University 

Colby  College,  President  Arthur  Jeremiah  Roberts. 

Allegheny  College,  President  William  Henry  Crawford. 

General  Theological  Seminary,  Dean  Wilford  Lash  Rob- 
bins. 

Auburn    Theological    Seminary,    President    George    Black 
Stewart. 

Colgate  University,  Professor  Frank  Lucius  Shepardson. 

University  of  Pittsburgh,  Chancellor  Samuel  B.  McCormick. 

Amherst  College,  President  Alexander  Meiklejohn  and  Dean 
George  Daniel  Olds. 

George  Washington  University,  Dean  William  Allen  Wilbur. 

HoBART  College,  Professor  Frank  Elbert  Watson. 

Trinity  College,  President  Flavel  Sweeten  Luther. 

Newton  Theological  Institution,  President  George  Edwin 
Horr. 

Lafayette  College,  Professor  James  Waddell  Tupper. 

Western  Reserve  University,  Professor  Frank  Perkins  Whit- 
man. 

Denison  University,  President  Clark  Wells  Chamberlain. 

New  York  University,  Professor  Marshall  Stewart  Brown. 

Wesleyan  University,  President  William  Arnold  Shanklin. 

Haverford  College,  President  Isaac  Sharpless. 

Oberlin  College,  Professor  Philip  Darrell  Sherman. 

Hartford  Theological  Seminary,   Professor  Charles  Snow 
Thayer. 

Alfred  University,  President  Boothe  Colwell  Davis. 

Mount  Holyoke  College,  President  Mary  Emma  WooUey 
and  Professor  John  Martyn  Warbeke. 

Union  Theological  Seminary,  President  Francis  Brown. 

C    200    ] 


Presentation  of  Delegates 

University  of  Michigan,  Professor  Herbert  Richard  Cross. 

Knox  College,  Professor  William  Edward  Simonds. 

University  of  Missouri,  Professor  Jay  William  Hudson. 

Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  President  Herbert  Welch. 

BucKNELL  University,  Professor  Frank  Ernest  Rockvvood  and 
Professor  Enoch  Perrine. 

Grinnell  College,  Professor-Emeritus  Jesse  Macy. 

College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  Professor  William  Ward 
Browne. 

University  of  Wisconsin,  Dr.  Hermon  Carey  Bumpus  and 
Professor  Carl  Russell  Fish. 

University  of  Rochester,  President  Rush  Rhees. 

Rochester  Theological  Seminary,  Rev.  Clarence  Augustus 
Barbour. 

Tufts  College,  Acting-President  William  Leslie  Hooper. 

Washington  University,   Acting-Chancellor  Frederic  Alden 
Hall. 

The  Polytechnic  Institute,  Brooklyn,  New  York,  President 
Fred  Washington  Atkinson. 

Pennsylvania    State    College,   Professor    Irving   Lysander 
Foster. 

Earlham  College,  Professor  John  Dougan  Rea. 

University  of  California,  Professor  Carl  Copping  Plehn. 

Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology,  President  Richard 
Cockburn  Maclaurin  and  Mr.  John  Ripley  Freeman. 

Vassar  College,  Professor  George  Coleman  Gow. 

University  of  Maine,  President  Robert  Judson  Aley. 

Worcester  Polytechnic  Instfiute,  President  Ira  Nelson  Hollis. 

Lehigh  University,  President  Henry  Sturgis  Drinker. 

Drew  Theological  Seminary,  President  Ezra  Squier  Tipple. 

[    201     ] 


Brown  University 


West    Virginia    University,    Acting-President    Frank    B. 
Trotter. 

Massachusetts  Agricultural  College,  President  Kenyon  Leech 
Butterfield  and  Professor  Edgar  Louis  Ashley. 

Cornell  University,  President  Jacob  Gould  Schurman  and 
Professor  Charles  Edwin  Bennett. 

Wells  College,  President  Kerr  Duncan  Macmillan. 

Boston  University,  President  Lemuel  Herbert  Murlin. 

Swarthmore  College,  President  Joseph  Swain. 

Stevens  Institute  of  Technology,  President  Alexander  Crom- 
bie  Humphreys. 

Smith  College,  Professor  Anna  Alice  Cutler. 

Colorado  College,  Professor  James  Williams  Park. 

Wellesley  College,  President  Ellen  Fitz  Pendleton  and  Pro- 
fessor Sarah  Frances  Whiting. 

Johns  Hopkins  UNnrERsnY,  President  Frank  Johnson  Goodnow. 

Radcliffe  College,  President  Le  Baron  Russell  Briggs  and 
Dean  Bertha  May  Boody. 

Bryn  Mawr  College,  President  M.  Carey  Thomas. 

Case  School  of  Applied  Science,  President  Charles  Sumner 
Howe. 

Untversity  of  Wyoming,  Professor  E.  Deane  Hunton. 

Univ^ersity  of  Chicago,  Professor  Gerald  Birney  Smith  and 
Professor  John  Matthews  Manly. 

Rhode  Island  State  College,  President  Howard  Edwards 
and  Hon.  Zenas  Work  Bliss. 

Simmons  College,  President  Henry  Lefavour  and  Professor 
Frank  Edgar  Farley. 

Clark  College,  President  Edmund  Clark  Sanford. 

Carnegie   Institution   of   Washington,    Dr.    John   Franklin 
Jameson. 

C    202    ] 


Presentation  of  Delegates 

Carnegie  Institute  of  Technology,  Dean  John  Hopkins  Leete. 

Connecticut  College  for  Women,  President  Frederick  H. 
Sykes. 

After  the  visiting  delegates  had  been  presented,  Presi- 
dent Faunce  brought  the  exercises  in  the  meeting- 
house to  a  close  by  pronouncing  the  benediction.  The 
academic  procession  was  then  reformed  and  marched 
back  to  the  front  campus,  where  it  was  dismissed. 


[    20S    H 


Concert 

By  the  Mendelssohn  Glee  Club 

ON  Wednesday  evening,  fourteenth  October,  at 
a  quarter  after  eight  o'clock,  the  Mendelssohn 
Glee  Club,  of  New  York,  gave  a  complimentary  con- 
cert in  Infantry  Hall,  before  a  large  and  appreciative 
audience,  made  up  of  visiting  delegates,  members  of 
the  University,  alumni,  and  other  invited  guests.  The 
active  members  of  the  Club  who  were  present  and 
assisted  in  the  concert  were: 

Mr.  Louis  Koemmenich,  conductor,  and  Messrs.  Jerome  R. 
Allen,  Howard  S.  Borden,  Horatio  J.  Brewer,  J.  Holmes 
Butler,  Frank  B.  Garland,  Cliiford  Cairns,  Newcomb  B.  Cole, 
Frank  Croxton,  H.  E.  Distelhurst,  George  Featherstone, 
Edwin  M.  Fulton,  John  T.  Gillespie,  Wilfred  Glenn,  W. 
Glasgow  Greene,  Charles  B.  Hawley,  Hugh  Herndon,  Fred- 
erick L.  Higgins,  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Hills,  Frank  L.  Hilton,  Jack- 
son C.  Kinsey,  J.  Warren  Knapp,  Arthur  Knox,  Louis  F. 
Leland,  J.  E.  McGahen,  Willard  H.  MacGregor,  William 
W.  Mallory,  Ferris  J.  Meigs,  Taylor  More,  Kenneth  M. 
Murchison,  Charles  Olson,  Benjamin  Prince,  Edgar  Pouch, 
J.  Clark  Read,  Allan  Robinson,  George  G.  Schreiber,  Har- 
vey Self,  Frederic  K.  Seward,  Charles  E.  Sholes,  Louis 
Morris  Starr,  Nelson  D.  Sterling,  William  Denham  Tucker, 
Allen  G.  Waterous,  William  J.  Whitaker,  John  Young,  Wil- 
liam P.  Young.  The  accompanist  was  Mr.  Charles  A.  Baker. 

The  programme  was  as  follows: 

Pari  One 

I.  Shine  Forth,  O  Day,  by  Wmnzlerl;  Would  That  Life  Were 
Endless  Sailing,  by  Storch;  Viking  Song,  by  Coleridge-  Taylor. 

n.  Tenor  Solo  (Mr.  John  Young),  Cielo  e  mar  {La  Gioconda), 
by  Ponchielli. 

C  204  n 


Concert 

III.  The  Lamp  in  tlie  \\^est,  by  Parker;  The  Flying  Dutch- 
man, by  Andreae;  Huzza!  The  Old  Fiddler,  hy  Nagler. 

IV.  Duet  (Mr.  Johx  Young  and  Mr.  William  D.  Tucker) 
{Im  Boheme)^  by  Puccini. 

Part  Two 

I.  In  Winter,  by  Kremser;  Marietta,  by  Gall;  Suomi's  Song, 
by  j\Iayr. 

II.  Songs  (Mr.  Frank  Croxton)  :  She  Never  Told  Her  Love 
(TwelJ}h-j\ight),  by  Haijden;  The  Willow  Song  {Othello, 
1585  ),  from  Dams'  Look  Book;  Antolycus'  Song  {A  Winter'' s 
Tale\  by  Greenhill. 

III.  Morning  in  the  Dewy  Woods,  by  Hegar;  Vale  Caris- 
sima,  by  Attenhofer ;  Hymn  of  Thanksgiving,  by  Kremser. 


C  205  ] 


The  University  Address 

and  the 
Conferring  of  Degrees 

ON  Thursday  forenoon,  fifteenth  October,  in  the 
First  Baptist  Meeting-House,  at  half  after  ten 
o'clock,  the  University  Address  was  delivered  by  Wil- 
liam Peterson,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  D.Litt, CM. G., Principal 
and  Vice-Chancellor  of  McGill  University.  President 
Faunce  presided.  After  the  address  came  the  confer- 
ring of  honorary  degrees. 

At  nine  forty-five  o'clock  the  academic  procession 
again  formed  on  the  front  campus  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Chief  Marshal  Joslin,  and  marched  thence  to 
the  meeting-house.  The  order  of  the  procession  was  the 
same  as  on  Wednesday,  except  that  candidates  for 
honorary  degrees  were  placed  at  the  head  of  the  second 
division. 

At  the  meeting-house,  President  Faunce  offered 
prayer.  Fairman's  Orchestra  played  the  "Titus "over- 
ture, by  Mozart.  President  Faunce  then  introduced 
Principal  Peterson,  whose  address  follows: 

THE  compliment  which  has  been  paid  to  me  in 
connection  with  to-day's  proceedings  is  as  wel- 
come as  it  was  unexpected.  I  am  asked  to  stand  for- 
ward as  the  representative  of  those  who  wish  you  well, 
and  to  try  to  find  words  in  which  to  express  what  is  in 
the  hearts  of  all. 

To  what  am  I  to  attribute  this  compliment,  which 
I  desire  in  the  first  place  most  gratefully  to  acknow- 
ledge? At  an  unexampled  crisis  in  the  world's  history, 

I  206  ] 


The  University  Address 

when  the  horrors  of  war  have  rendered  difficult  even 
the  usual  means  of  intercommunication  between  na- 
tions, I  find  myself  the  spokesman  for  the  whole  of  this 
academic  assemblage,  and  practically  one  of  the  com- 
paratively few  foreigners  who  are  privileged  to  be  pres- 
ent on  this  occasion  as  invited  guests.  Let  me  fortify  my- 
self with  the  reflection,  and  at  the  same  time  conciliate 
my  hearers  with  the  reminder,  that  what  I  have  to  say  is 
not  likely  at  least  to  sound  foreign  in  your  ears !  At  such 
university  festivals  I  have  often  seen  the  delegates 
divided  into  two  main  classes, — European  and  Ameri- 
can; and  sometimes  it  has  not  been  altogether  easy  to 
see  where  Canada  came  in.  I  take  your  invitation  as  a 
compliment,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  country  which  I 
have  the  honor  to  represent,  and  which  is  bound  to  you 
not  only  by  geographical  propinquity,  but  even  more 
closely  by  the  ties  of  common  traditions,  kindred  ideals, 
and  a  like  destiny.  Personally  I  am  not  without  expe- 
rience of  such  celebrations.  My  official  apprenticeship 
began  just  thirty  years  ago,  at  the  great  Edinburgh 
Tercentenary  of  1884,  when,  by  the  way, I  had  already 
been  two  years  a  college  head.  In  the  interval  which  has 
elapsed  since  that  date,  I  have  always  kept  steadily  be- 
fore my  eyes  the  gain  that  accrues  to  all  of  us  from  the 
cultivation  of  reciprocal  relations  between  the  univer- 
sities of  different  countries.  They  rank  among  the  high- 
est expressions  of  the  soul  of  a  people,  and  nowhere 
ought  it  to  be  more  possible  than  it  is  with  them  to  em- 
phasize,on  the  spiritual  side,  the  essential  identity  of  our 
common  aims  and  aspirations.  The  higher  education  is 
— or  rather  ought  to  have  been  allowed  to  remain — the 
greatest  federating  agency  at  work  in  the  world  at  the 
present  time.  Though  the  picture  has  been  sadly  marred 

C  207  ] 


Brown  University 

by  the  ruthlessness  of  contemporary  events,  we  are  still 
able  to  envisage,  with  Goethe  and  Matthew  Arnold,  the 
*'  whole  group  of  civilized  nations  as  being,  for  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  purposes,  one  great  confederation, 
bound  to  a  joint  action  and  working  towards  a  common 
result." 

What  an  immense  industry  this  university  business 
of  ours  has  become  in  the  course  of  the  last  sixty  years ! 
In  1856  Harvard  had  only  320  students:  now  it  has 
6000.  And  Columbia  and  Chicago  and  California  are 
each  over  the  6000  mark,  while  Cornell  and  many 
others  have  just  about  as  many  students  on  their  mus- 
ter-rolls. What  an  army  these  returns  indicate,  already 
more  or  less  mobiHzed, — not  at  the  call  of  any  indi- 
vidual despot,  but  as  volunteers, — on  the  side  of  demo- 
cratic progress!  It  has  become  fashionable  in  America 
to  go  to  college, — fashionable  both  for  men  and  for 
women ;  and  the  next  generation,  if  not  our  own,  should 
see  the  results  in  a  larger  outlook  on  life,  in  habits  of 
clear,  honest,  and  impartial  thinking,  in  a  heightened 
social  consciousness,  and  a  lofty  purpose  of  disinterested 
service. 

In  the  university  system  of  the  United  States,  Brown 
seems  to  me  to  stand  midway  between  the  large  col- 
lege and  the  small.  Both  have  their  advantages,  in  all 
of  which  you  may  be  said  to  share.  The  large  college 
has,  in  the  first  place,  the  stimulus  of  numbers:  the 
greater  the  student  body,  the  more  probability  there  is 
that  individual  angles  will  be  rubbed  oif,  and  that  the 
student  will  enjoy  the  bracing  influences  of  a  real  school 
of  life.  And  in  the  larger  institutions  the  equipment  is 
better,  as  a  rule;  the  course  more  varied;  the  teaching 
staff,  speaking  generally,  more  distinguished;  and  the 

[  208  ] 


The  University  Address 

degree  a  more  recognized  passport  into  the  various 
avenues  of  practical  life.  You  share  these  advantages, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  you  in  Brown  are  small  enough 
to  realize  the  benefits  that  come  from  a  more  intimate 
social  life  among  your  students,  closer  contact  with  in- 
structors, and  a  larger  measure  of  solidarity  and  esprit 
de  corps. 

There  is  general  agreement  to-day  that  the  aim  and 
purpose  of  a  university  may  be  best  summarized  under 
three  heads  :^n-^  teaching,  second  research  and  investi- 
gation, ^/z/rr/ influence  on  the  community  in  which  it  does 
its  work.  The  first  two  should  go  together,  for  the  best 
teaching  will  always  be  enlivened  and  informed  by  the 
spirit  of  research  and  the  habit  of  investigation.  It  is  not 
enough  to  retail  knowledge  already  acquired,  unless  you 
can  at  the  same  time  associate  yourself  in  someway  with 
the  efforts  that  are  being  made  to  extend  the  boundaries 
of  knowledge.  This  statement  should  not  be  made  of 
Science  alone, either  pure  or  applied.  Other  departments 
—  such  as  History,  Economics,  and  Philosophy — have 
shared  in  the  wonderful  advances  that  have  been  made 
during  the  time  in  which  your  University  has  been  at 
work.  Of  the  sesquicentennial  period  which  we  arecele- 
brating  to-day,  the  last  fifty  years  have  been,  on  the 
side  of  the  advancement  of  learning,  the  most  fruitful 
and  the  most  distinguished.  One  has  only  to  refer  to 
the  progress  made,  for  example,  in  Physics,  Chemis- 
try, Biology,  Applied  Mechanics,  science  as  related  to 
commerce  and  industry.  Economics,  and  Sociology,  to 
realize  the  fact  that  we  are  literally  to-day  standing  on 
the  shoulders  of  our  predecessors  and  seeing  further 
than  they  into  the  realms  of  futurity.  And  there  is  a 
better  idea  abroad  in  the  world  to-day  of  the  meaning  of 

I  209  ] 


Brown  University- 
education.  Something  has  been  done  to  correct  the  error 
to  which,  especially  on  this  continent,  we  were  only 
too  prone, — the  fallacy  of  looking  mainly  to  material 
profit  and  loss,  and  of  appraising  educational  results 
in  terms  of  aptitude  for  commercial  and  industrial  pro- 
duction. Of  course  we  still  hear  a  great  deal  about  the 
importance  of  what  are  called  "vocational"  as  com- 
pared with  "cultural"  subjects.  Some  people  argue  as 
though  the  chief  end  and  aim  of  education  were  to  qual- 
ify one  for  making  a  living  instead  of  for  living  a  life.  It 
strikes  me  that  in  many  centres  of  the  higher  education 
we  have  been  too  apt  to  lose  sight  of  the  old  ideal  of  a 
"Faculty  of  Arts." The  university  must  be  something 
more  than  a  mere  nursery  for  specialists.  We  all  know 
what  it  is  to  have  to  deal  with  the  uneducated  special- 
ist. It  is  here,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that  the  smaller  col- 
leges, with  their  more  or  less  fixed  curriculum,  are  hav- 
ing at  once  their  opportunity  and  their  revenge.  The 
university  must  not  give  up  the  attempt  to  define  the 
sphere  of  liberal  instruction  and  culture.  Specializa- 
tion is  of  course  one  of  its  most  important  functions,  but 
after  all  there  is  no  greater  service  it  can  render  the 
community  than  that  which  is  implied  in  turning  out, 
year  by  year,  a  number  of  students  who  have  received 
the  benefits  of  a  sound  and  comprehensive  education, — 
that  is  to  say,  some  orientation  in  a  large  and  enlight- 
ened view  of  life  as  a  whole,  and  therefore  some  im- 
pulse towards  filling  their  own  particular  places  in  it  in 
a  worthy  and  intelligent  manner.  When  I  go  back  in 
memory  to  the  old  days  of  the  Scottish  universities, 
one  of  which,  as  well  as  McGill,  I  have  the  honor  to 
represent  here  to-day,  where  the  whole  student  body 
came  into  contact — albeit  in  huge, unwieldy,  and  over- 

C    210    ] 


The  University  Address 

grown  classes — with  Arts  Professors,  each  of  whom 
was  a  worthy  representative  of  an  important  and  almost 
essential  subject,  I  realize  the  loss,  as  well  as  the  gain, 
that  has  come  to  us  from  the  revision  of  our  meth- 
ods and  standards.  Many  of  our  greatest  universities 
are  now  looking  round  for  some  corrective  to  apply 
to  what  has  been  described  as  "haphazardness"  in  the 
choice  of  studies.  You  are  probably  aware  that  at  some 
of  the  larger  institutions  students  may  graduate  with- 
out either  classics  or  mathematics:  a  return  obtained 
a  few  years  ago  in  regard  to  one  of  them  showed  that 
45  per  cent  drop  classics  altogether  on  entering  col- 
lege, and  75  per  cent  drop  mathematics.  These  time- 
honored  subjects  are  being  displaced  in  favor  of  stud- 
ies which  are  described  as  "more  likely  to  be  service- 
able to  the  actual  activities  of  modern  society."!  have 
grave  doubts  about  the  wisdom  of  making  so  large  a 
departure  from  what  may  be  regarded  as  of  perma- 
nent value  in  the  traditional  basis  of  a  liberal  education. 
Such  an  education  ought  not  to  be  a  thing  of  the  past 
for  those  who  have  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  it.  For 
them  it  is  attainable  within  the  limits  of  school  and  col- 
lege life,  provided  they  do  not  begin  to  apply  them- 
selves exclusively  to  some  special  training  in  the  very 
first  year  of  their  academic  course.  There  ought  always 
to  be  some  order,  some  definition,  some  regulation  of 
university  studies.  Wherever  the  attitude  is  adopted 
that  is  implied  in  the  well-known  formula  of  one  sub- 
ject being  "as  good  as  another,"  we  are  likely,  in  my 
judgment,  to  be  called  on  to  pay  the  penalty.  The  uni- 
versity, so  far  as  concerns  what  is  called  its"  academic" 
side,  will  be  cut  up  into  segments.  Departments  will  be 
apt  to  be  treated  as  wholes  in  themselves  rather  than 

C    211     ] 


Brown  University 

in  their  organic  relation  to  fundamental  branches  of 
knowledge. 

A  college  education  ought  to  be  a  preparation,  not 
for  a  special  career,  but  for  the  whole  after-life.  Many 
of  us  do  not  command,  and  never  can  command,  the 
leisure  that  would  enable  us  fully  to  satisfy  tastes  that 
lie  outside  our  daily  avocations.  But  we  do  not  want  to 
forget  them,  or  to  lose  sight  of  them.  For  we  know 
that  if  we  would  avoid  that  narrowing  of  the  mental 
and  intellectual  horizon  which  is  generally  the  penalty 
of  absorption  in  some  special  calling,  such  tastes  and 
such  pursuits  should  be  considered  valuable  in  propor- 
tion as  they  are  removed  from  the  environment  of  our 
daily  life. 

A  study  of  the  curriculum  offered  in  Brown  Uni- 
versity shows  that  you  have  sought  to  effect  an  adjust- 
ment of  these  matters,  a  reconciliation  of  the  interests 
of  higher  culture  on  the  one  hand  and  those  of  the  sci- 
entific and  practical  needs  of  the  community  on  the 
other.  The  claims  of  the  "humanities"  and  the  "util- 
ities" are  not  really  irreconcilable.  Science  has  made 
great  achievements  and  is  destined  to  accomplish  still 
more,  not  merely  on  the  material  side,  but  also  in  the 
way  of  broadening  human  thought  and  eliminating  su- 
perstition. But  this  need  not  blind  us  to  the  importance 
of  history,  philosophy,  literature,  and  art.  Science  can 
hardly  be  said  to  cover  all  the  highest  needs  of  human 
life  or  to  satisfy  every  human  aspiration.  It  is  especially 
incumbent  on  university  institutions  to  resist  the  obvi- 
ous temptation  that  there  is  to  neglect  the  things  of  the 
spirit.  For  when  the  last  bridge  has  been  built  and  the 
last  railway  laid  down,  much  will  still  remain  in  regard 
to  which  our  eager  curiosity  will  continue  to  call  for 

[    212    ] 


The  University  Address 

satisfaction.  An  exclusively  scientific  and  practical  uni- 
versity, and  still  more  a  commercialized  university, 
would  be  a  somewhat  one-sided,  if  not  a  mean  and  sor- 
did foundation.  Here  in  Brown  it  seems  to  me  you  are 
wise  in  not  making  any  large  departure  from  what 
is  believed  to  be  of  permanent  value  in  the  traditional 
curriculum.  No  doubt  you  do  what  you  can  towards 
providing  certain  forms  of  professional  education ;  but 
you  also  seek  to  produce  scholars, —  scholars  and  think- 
ers, men  eager  to  join  in  the  search  for  truth  and  ready 
to  proclaim  it  fearlessly  when  found.  No  institution  can 
be  in  a  healthy  condition  which  is  not  spending  a  con- 
siderable part  of  its  energies  on  those  subjects  "which 
do  not  offer  any  preparation  for  professional  life,  which 
cannot  be  converted  immediately  into  wage  earning 
products."  A  true  university  will  always  give  ever- 
increasing  prominence  to  the  various  departments  of 
highest  learning,  to  those  that  deal  with  philosophy 
and  history,  with  the  sources  of  great  social  and  intel- 
lectual movements,  with  poetry,  literature,  and  the  fine 
arts,  with  the  foundation  of  ethics,  personal,  social,  and 
national.  For  as  was  said  at  a  similar  gathering  lately 
held  elsewhere:  "  Whatever  other  classes  we  have  and 
conserve  in  the  land,  artisan,  agriculturist,  trader, 
shipper,  railway-builder,  or  capitalist,  there  is  no  one 
among  them  all  who  can  contribute  to  national  stabil- 
ity and  national  honor  unless  behind  and  above  them 
all  alike  there  is  another  class,  the  scholar  class,  who 
stand  not  only  for  ideas  but  for  ideals," — those  higher 
standards  of  human  wisdom  and  conduct  which  enable 
man  to  rise  to  the  fullest  comprehension  of  himself  and 
of  his  place  in  the  world  around  him. 

Even  persons  of  average  education  are  in  danger  of 
C   213   ^ 


Brown  University 

being  considered  uncultured,  if  they  are  wanting  in 
what  I  may  call  historical  perspective.  It  is  all  very  well 
to  be  equipped  for  living  in  the  present  and  for  dealing 
with  the  actualities  of  life.  But  none  of  us  can  altogether 
get  away  from  the  past,  and  we  ought  not  to  try.  The 
interest  of  existence  need  not  for  any  of  us  be  crowded 
into  the  petty  space  of  our  own  short  years.  We  should 
know,  at  least  in  outline,  the  story  of  the  movements 
which  have  brought  human  civilization  to  the  point  at 
which  it  stands  to-day.  Only  a  small  gift  of  historic  im- 
agination is  needful  to  enable  even  those  who  are  not 
professed  historians  to  realize  to  themselves  the  onward 
march  of  human  affairs,  typified  in  the  three  stages 
marked  successively  by  three  oceans,  the  Mediterra- 
nean, the  Atlantic,  and  the  Pacific.  This  will  give  them 
a  vision  of  what  Goethe  calls  the  seamless  web  woven 
in  the  "roaring  loom  of  time," — with  continuous  and 
unbroken  threads,  stretching  from  the  very  dawn  of  civ- 
ilization and  whirling  onward  to  the  end.  Of  all  institu- 
tions the  modern  university  is  eminently  the  one  which 
can  least  afford  to  drop  or  disparage  the  past  in  its  for- 
ward movement  into  the  future.  It  should  teach  all  its 
students, at  least  in  outline, how  Greece  brought  to  light 
from  the  wreck  of  ancient  despotisms  a  rational  freedom 
for  mankind,  how  the  Hebrews  superadded  the  idea  of 
personal  holiness  and  faith  in  the  goodness  of  the  one 
God,  how  Rome  established  her  universal  system  on 
the  sure  foundation  of  law  and  government,  and  how, 
out  of  these  preexisting  elements,  European  civiliza- 
tion arose  and  in  time  overflowed  upon  this  continent. 
All  this  past  belongs  to  us,  and  influences  us,  even  un- 
consciously, in  all  our  existence  and  environment, — in 
history,  art,  thought,  politics,  ethics, and  religion;  and 

[   214  ] 


The  University  Address 

nothing  could  be  more  short-sighted  than  for  us  to  try 
to  turn  our  backs  upon  it,  treating  it  as  something  out- 
lived and  outworn,  and  destitute  therefore  of  all  signifi- 
cance for  the  life  of  to-day. 

The  plain-dealing  busy  man  of  affairs,  engrossed  in 
the  occupation  which  directly  appeals  to  him, often  asks 
what  is  the  value  of  old  history  to  him.  The  answer  to 
that  is  that  every  one  is  born  to-day  several  thousand 
years  old.  The  present  is  charged  with  the  past,  and  it 
is  useless  to  attempt  to  get  away  from  it.  No  all-round 
education  is  possible  to-day  if  it  fails  to  impart  to  the 
student  what  I  have  called  a  true  sense  of  historical 
perspective.  The  studies  which  set  before  us  the  unity 
and  continuity  of  history,  of  human  life,  and  human 
knowledge,  are  surely  among  the  most  valuable  of 
their  kind.  As  between  such  studies  and  those  to  which 
we  have  more  recently  been  indebted  for  the  great 
advances  of  modern  science,  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  held 
the  balance  evenly,  and  almost  by  anticipation,  when 
he  said,"  Whatever  makes  the  past,  the  distant,  or  the 
future  predominate  over  the  present  advances  us  in  the 
dignity  of  thinking  beings."  The  fact  is  that  those  who 
speak  with  contempt  of  what  they  call  dead  studies  are 
in  danger  of  not  realizing  that  it  is  they  themselves  who 
are — well,  not  quite  alive! 

We  must  not,  as  I  have  said, turn  our  backs  upon  the 
past.  Here  in  this  New  World  of  ours,  this  is  just  what 
practical  people,  busy  about  their  own  immediate  con- 
cerns, are  apt  to  do  perhaps  even  more  than  elsewhere. 
There  is  a  superstition  to  wdiich  our  comparative  youth 
is  particularly  liable — the  superstition  that  we  have 
made  an  entirely  fresh  start.  That  is  what  Bacon  called 
"the  idol  of  the  cave,"  for  us.  Inhabitants  of  a  vast  con- 

[  215   ] 


Brown  University 

tinent  of  our  own,  and  sheltered  as  we  seem  to  be,  as 
though  in  an  impregnable  "citadel  free  from  care," 
from  the  tragic  complexities  of  the  Old  World, — the 
source  of  all  we  have  and  are, — we  are  only  too  apt  to 
congratulate  ourselves  upon  an  isolation  which  might 
easily  turn  out  to  be  illusory  in  actual  material  conse- 
quence as  well  as  narrowing  to  the  range  of  our  out- 
look and  sympathies.  Old  England  owed  much,  and 
please  God  will  continue  to  owe  everything  now,  to  the 
silver-streak, as  New  England  owes  much  to  the  broad 
Atlantic.  Let  New  England  be  on  her  guard  against  in- 
heriting the  insular  lack  of  imagination  which  has  often 
been  found  by  her  parent  state  a  serious  drawback  to 
the  blessings  of  detachment.  Remoteness  from  strife 
may  be  dearly  purchased  by  what  is  apt  to  go  with  it  to 
the  bargain,  remoteness  from  compelling  stimulus  to 
thought.  The  world  has  become  one  in  space.  The  At- 
lantic counts  for  little  more  than  the  English  Channel 
now.  That  is  one  of  the  great  achievements  of  modern 
thought  and  action.  The  other  is  that  in  time,  too, as  well 
as  in  space,  the  world  has  become  one;  the  whole  pro- 
cess of  its  evolution  through  the  centuries  has  emerged 
to  plain  view  as  an  organic  unity.  To  be  truly  educated, 
one  must  be  a  freeman  of  the  Universal  City  which  is 
one  not  only  over  all  the  earth,  but  also  in  all  the  suc- 
cessive epochs  of  its  history  throughout  the  ages. 

And  whatever  thesphereof  our  special  study  may  be, 
— whether  it  be  literary  or  scientific,  social,  artistic,  or 
philosophical, — the  thing  of  most  supreme  importance 
is  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  carried  on.  Truth  and  the  love 
of  truth  ought  to  be  our  watchword.  Some  material  is, 
of  course,  as  Aristotle  would  have  said,  more  fluid  than 
others,  and  it  is  harder  in  dealing  with  it  to  get  down 

c  216 : 


The  University  Address 

to  bed-rock.  That  is  why  religion  and  pohtics  are  often 
barred  from  ordinary  conversation,  and  from  the  dis- 
cussions of  clubs  and  debating  societies.  But  here,  too, 
as  everywhere  else,  it  ought  not  to  be  difficult  to  apply 
the  supreme  test  of  intellectual  sincerity.  We  should  be 
able  to  bring  to  bear  on  political  history,  for  exam- 
ple,— even  on  contemporary  events, —  the  patient  col- 
lection of  individual  facts,  the  broader  generalizations 
that  connect  them,  the  elimination  of  all  previous  pre- 
judice and  bias,  and  the  dispassionate  temper  which 
Darwin  and  his  fellow  workers  have  applied  to  the  pur- 
suit of  natural  science.  Perhaps  the  profession  of  faith 
once  eloquently  uttered  by  M.  Gaston  Paris  will  bear 
to  be  quoted  once  more  in  this  connection: 

"  I  profess  absolutely  and  without  reserve  this  doc- 
trine, that  the  sole  object  of  science  is  truth,  and  truth 
for  its  own  sake,  without  regard  to  consequences,  good 
or  evil,  happy  or  unhappy.  He  who,  through  patriotic, 
religious,  or  even  moral  motives,  allows  himself  in 
regard  to  the  facts  which  he  investigates,  or  the  con- 
clusions w^hich  he  draws  from  them,  the  smallest  dis- 
similation, the  slightest  variation  of  standard,  is  not 
worthy  to  have  a  place  in  the  great  laboratory  where 
honesty  is  a  more  indispensable  title  to  admission  than 
ability.  Thus  understood,  common  studies,  pursued  in 
the  same  spirit  in  all  civilized  countries,  form — above 
restricted  and  too  often  hostile  nationalities — a.grande 
patrie  which  is  stained  by  no  war,  menaced  by  no 
conqueror,  and  where  our  souls  find  the  rest  and  com- 
munion which  was  given  them  in  other  days  by  the 
City  of  God." 

What  I  described  as  the  third  of  the  main  functions 
of  a  university — that  of  influencing  the  community  in 

C   217  ] 


Brown  University 

which  it  works — has  an  obvious  application  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  University  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  address.  From  small  beginnings  you  have  grown 
with  the  growth  of  this  large  centre  of  population,  with 
which  it  is  at  once  your  duty  and  your  interest  to  cul- 
tivate the  closest  possible  relations.  For  from  such  re- 
lations much  benefit  may  be  derived  by  both.  In  the 
United  States  no  influence  has  ever  been  permitted  to 
obscure  the  view  that  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  com- 
munity at  large  that  each  member  of  it  shall  be  able 
to  claim  full  opportunity  for  the  development  of  the 
talents  with  which  nature  has  endowed  him,  to  the 
end  that  he  and  his  fellows  may  reap  the  benefit  of 
their  proper  exercise.  It  is  an  interesting  feature  in  the 
growth  also  of  English  democracy  that  the  largest  in- 
dustrial centres  have  insisted — practically  within  the 
last  generation — on  having  each  a  university  of  its  own. 
In  England  the  civic  university  is,  in  fact,  a  new  birth  of 
these  latter  days.  If  any  one  is  in  doubt  as  to  the  expla- 
nation of  this  phenomenon,  he  has  only  to  ask  himself 
what  such  a  city  as  this  would  be  without  its  University. 
It  would,  of  course,  be  great  in  commerce  and  indus- 
try, in  manufacturing  enterprise  and  material  prosper- 
ity; but  it  would  lack  the  institution  which  is  the  cen- 
tralized expression  of  its  aspirations  after  things  that 
are  higher  than  these,  and  which  enables  it  to  rank  with 
world-famous  centres  of  learning.  In  Manchester  and 
Birmingham  and  Liverpool  and  Leeds  the  local  insti- 
tution is  an  object  of  civic  pride,  and  systematic  efforts 
are  made,  even  to  the  extent  in  some  cases  of  an  addi- 
tion to  the  rates,  to  secure  that  adequate  resources  shall 
be  forthcoming  for  its  maintenance  and  development. 
It  is  recognized  that  the  university  will  give  back  to 

:  218  ■] 


The  University  Address 

the  community,  in  ever-growing  measure,  as  much  at 
least  as  it  receives  from  it.  For  not  only  does  it  increase 
and  enhance  local  prestige  and  dignity,  but  it  guaran- 
tees equality  of  educational  opportunity  to  all  who  are 
born  within  its  sphere  of  influence.  And  it  helps  to  en- 
large the  number  of  those  who  are  the  best  products 
of  busy  and  populous  centres — the  men  of  affairs, many 
of  whom  I  am  glad  to  know  that  Brown  counts  among 
her  supporters, — men  who, while  strenuously  engaged 
in  their  special  avocations,  yet  feel  the  impulse  to  cul- 
tivate other  tastes  and  interests.  Surely  these  men, 
whether  they  can  or  cannot  boast  a  university  degree, 
are  among  the  most  effective  members  of  modern  so- 
ciety. 

It  is  a  duty  in  this  connection,  as  well  as  a  melan- 
choly satisfaction, to  recognize  the  debt  which  England 
and  her  over-sea  dominions  owe  to  a  great  imperial 
statesman  who  passed  away  in  July  of  the  present  year. 
In  addition  to  the  distractions  of  an  arduous  political 
career,  in  the  course  of  which  he  succeeded  as  Colonial 
Secretary  in  making  the  British  Empire  more  conscious 
of  itself  than  it  had  ever  been  before, the  late  Mr.  Joseph 
Chamberlain  adorned  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  the 
high  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Birming- 
ham, and  along  with  its  Principal,  Sir  Oliver  Lodge,  did 
much  to  stamp  a  new  civic  character  not  only  on  that 
institution  but  also  on  others  which  sprang  up  to  rival 
it  in  the  great  centres  of  English  commercial  life  and 
industry.  Throughout  his  career  Birmingham  held  the 
main  place  in  Mr.  Chamberlain's  affections.  His  con- 
nection with  the  South  African  War  seemed  for  a  time 
to  endanger  his  reputation  in  the  judgment  of  those 
who  somewhat  crudely  imagined  that  it  was  under- 

t   219  ] 


Brown  University 

taken  solely  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  an  effete  mon- 
archy to  crush  a  group  of  free  republics:  with  a  section 
of  French-Canadian  opinion,  for  example,  *'  Chamber- 
lainisme"  is  an  equivalent  for  jingoism  and  militarism, 
and  flag-waving,  and  imperial  overlordship.  And  his 
policy  of  preferential  trade  was  not  popular  with  a  large 
portion  of  his  fellow  countrymen,  any  more  than  it 
was  with  foreign  nations,  like  Germany,  for  example, 
which,  instead  of  being  grateful  for  the  privilege  of 
free  admission  to  British  markets, is  even  now  fatuously 
seeking  to  prove  that  a  mean  and  petty  commercial 
jealousy  has  been  the  mainspring  of  British  policy  at  the 
present  crisis!  But  nothing  ever  impaired  the  esteem 
in  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  was  held  as  a  great  repre- 
sentative of  the  value  of  municipal  institutions.  It  was 
in  the  council  room  of  the  Birmingham  City  Hall  that  he 
served  the  apprenticeship  which  fitted  him  afterwards 
to  rise  to  some  of  the  highest  offices  of  state.  And  he 
never  ceased  to  labor  in  the  faith  of  an  inspiring  ideal, — 
the  ideal  of  a  "self-supporting  community  with  stately 
and  beneficent  public  institutions  and  a  dignified  public 
life, — not  dependent  on  London  for  picture  galleries, 
museums  and  libraries,  or  on  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
for  the  best  educational  facilities,  but  in  all  things  com- 
plete in  itself."  ("Times,"  July  7,  1914.) 

The  hope  of  the  world  to-day  is  in  an  educated  and 
enlightened  democracy  such  as  Mr.  Chamberlain  strove 
to  create  in  Birmingham.  That  is  why  we  do  rightly  in 
regarding  preparation  for  citizenship  and  the  public  ser- 
vice as  the  best  basis  of  much  of  our  work  in  the  realm 
of  higher  education.  Democracy  needs  leadership,  and 
no  matter  what  course  a  student  may  pursue,  his  univer- 
sity training  will  not  have  done  much  for  him  if  it  fails 

C  220  ] 


The  University  Address 

to  make  him  more  fit  than  he  would  otherwise  have 
been  to  lead  his  fellow-men,  and  to  play  a  useful  and 
a  creditable  part  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  Light 
and  leading — those  are  the  elements  which  we  must  call 
on  our  universities  to  suj)ply.  In  these  dark  days  it  might 
almost  seem  out  of  place  to  attempt  to  show  that  it  is 
to  enlightened  self-government  we  must  look, not  only 
for  the  conditions  of  municipal  well-being  and  national 
prosperity,  but  also  for  good- will  in  international  rela- 
tions. Only  a  short  year  ago  Viscount  Haldane,the  Lord 
Chancellor  of  England,  in  his  address  on  "Higher 
Nationality,"  delivered  before  the  American  Bar  As- 
sociation, was  sanguine  enough  to  speculate  on  the 
growth  among  nations  of  a  habit  of  looking  to  common 
ideals  "sufficiently  strong  to  develop  a  General  Will, 
and  to  make  the  binding  power  of  these  ideals  a  reliable 
sanction  for  their  obligations  to  each  other/'  Lord  Hal- 
dane  took  the  German  word  Sittlichkeit  to  illustrate  his 
meaning,  defining  it  as  the  system  of  habitual  or  cus- 
tomary conduct,  ethical  rather  than  legal,  which  em- 
braces all  those  obligations  of  the  citizens  which  it  is 
"bad  form  "  or  "not  the  thing"  to  disregard.  He  could 
not,  unfortunately,  make  such  an  address  to-day.  For 
in  Europe  all  prospect  of  international  Sittlichkeit  has 
been  put  far  from  this  generation,  at  least,  by  a  deliber- 
ately planned  outbreak  of  the  traditional  barbarism  that 
looks  to  conquest  and  the  waging  of  successful  war  as 
the  main  instrument  and  aim  of  the  highest  statesman- 
ship. In  place  of  the  Sittlichkeit  that  was  to  lead  nations 
to  act  towards  each  other  as"  gentlemen  "has  been  sub- 
stituted Fiirchtbarkeit  —  "  frightfulness."  Perhaps  you 
will  say  the  time  has  not  arrived  for  rendering  full  and 
final  judgment  on  the  question  of  responsibility  for 

[    221     ] 


Brown  University 

the  European  debacle ;  and  in  any  case  this  would  hardly 
be  an  appropriate  occasion.  But  one  may  safely  say  in 
the  meanwhile  that  no  class  of  citizen  is  better  qualified 
than  the  members  of  our  universities  to  pronounce  at 
least  a  provisional  verdict.  They  are  fully  competent 
to  assist  in  forming  that  public  opinion  on  which  de- 
mocracy depends  for  guidance.  An  appeal  has  lately 
been  addressed  to  the  universities  of  the  United  States 
in  the  spirit  of  academic  brotherhood  by  certain  repre- 
sentatives of  a  German  university  who  seem  to  hope 
that  you  can  be  brought  to  believe  that  the  only  one  of 
the  belligerents  that  did  nothing  to  occasion  the  out- 
break of  the  present  war, — the  only  one,  on  the  con- 
trary, who  did  everything  in  her  power  to  prevent  it, 
— was  Germany!  I  do  not  propose  to  take  advantage 
of  this  opportunity  for  any  sort  of  counter-appeal, 
though  it  might  be  pertinent  to  ask  who  it  was  that  re- 
fused arbitration  in  connection  with  the  original  quarrel 
between  Austria  and  Servia .?  The  various  Peace  Soci- 
eties of  the  American  continent  should  certainly  make 
their  voices  heard  in  regard  to  that,  if  they  desire  to  be 
considered  in  any  sense  effective  agencies,  with  a  real 
influence  on  public  thought.  My  contribution  to  the  dis- 
cussion will  consist  of  only  one  statement,  which  shall 
be  made  in  illustration  of  my  argument,  that  the  main 
need  of  the  world  to-day  is  a  further  advance  in  the 
direction  of  enlightened  self-government.  This  Euro- 
pean war  has  not  been  altogether,  as  we  are  apt  to  think 
in  America,  an  affair  of  Emperors  and  Cabinets.  When 
one  of  the  belligerents,  whom  I  proudly  claim  here  to 
represent,  had  most  reluctantly  to  say  the  fateful  word, 
— after  delaying  almost  to  the  verge  of  weakness  in  a 
matter  where  it  was  obvious  all  along  that  the  binding 

C    222    ] 


The  University  Address 

character  of  international  contracts  would  come  to  be 
concerned, —  it  was  not  through  her  King,  or  even  her 
Foreign  Secretary,  that  that  word  was  spoken:  no,  it 
was  the  representatives  of  the  people,  assembled  in  the 
mother  of  Parliaments,  that  voted  a  war  credit  with 
practical  unanimity,  and  their  action  in  what  was  put 
to  them  as  a  matter  of  national  duty  and  honor  has  re- 
ceived the  heartiest  possible  indorsement  not  only  of 
their  English  constituents,  but  also  of  men  of  every  kind 
of  political  persuasion  throughout  all  the  dominions 
of  the  British  Empire.  That  is  government  by  demo- 
cracy, and  considering  the  character  of  parliamentary 
representation  in  England,  and  the  system  of  ministe- 
rial responsibility  not  to  the  individual  ruler  but  to  the 
elected  representatives  of  the  people,  one  may  assert 
confidently  that  the  action  of  the  national  executive  in 
going  to  war  on  behalf  of  Belgium  was  as  much  a  di- 
rect act  of  the  British  nation  as  it  could  have  been  under 
your  republican  constitution.  As  to  the  issue,  may  God 
defend  the  right! 

The  reference  which  I  have  ventured  to  make  has 
not,  I  hope,  been  too  startling  a  reminder  that  univer- 
sities, while  mainly  concerned  with  handing  on  the 
heritage  of  the  past,  cannot  ignore  current  history.  In 
former  days  they  stood  perhaps  too  far  apart  from  the 
life  and  interests  of  the  democracy.  They  were  apt  to 
be  regarded  as  mere  academic  ornaments.  Now  they 
have  the  opportunity  of  influencing  every  department 
of  national  existence,  by  bringing  their  moral  and  intel- 
lectual equipment  to  bear  on  the  work  of  moulding  the 
mind  and  character  of  the  youth  of  the  land,  by  apply- 
ing a  lofty  idealism  to  the  concrete  interests  of  real 
life,  and  in  this  way  training  for  leadership  in  the  pub- 

Z    223    ] 


Brown  University 

lie  service.  Brown  University  is  well  qualified  to  take 
part  in  this  common  effort.  It  has  had  a  distinguished 
past,  and  it  looks  forward  to  a  future  full  of  promise, 
— a  future  that  will  more  than  justify  the  hopeful  prog- 
nostications expressed  in  his  eloquent  peroration  by 
the  orator  of  yesterday.  On  all  its  members  the  stimu- 
lus and  inspiration  of  this  anniversary  celebration  may 
be  expected  to  exercise  a  healthful  and  an  invigorating 
influence.  It  lies  with  them  to  make  their  University 
ever  more  and  more  living  and  active:  to  enable  it  to 
*'go  from  strength  to  strength."  Let  me  conclude  by 
reminding  them,  in  words  once  used  by  the  Prime  Min- 
ister of  England, — whose  able  management  of  public 
affairs  at  a  great  crisis  of  his  country's  history  has  taken 
nothing  away  from  his  keen  interest  in  scholarship  and 
literature, — that  a  university  "will  be  judged  in  the 
long  run  not  merely  or  mainly  by  its  success  in  equip- 
ping its  pupils  to  outstrip  their  competitors  in  the  crafts 
and  professions.  It  will  not  be  fully  judged  even  by  the 
excellence  of  its  mental  gymnastic  or  its  contributions 
to  scholarship  and  science.  It  will  be  judged  also  by 
the  influence  which  it  is  exerting  upon  the  imagination 
and  the  character;  by  the  ideals  which  it  has  implanted 
and  nourished;  by  the  new  resources  of  faith,  tenacity, 
aspiration,  with  which  it  has  recruited  and  reinforced 
the  untrained  and  undeveloped  nature ;  by  the  degree 
in  which  it  has  helped  to  raise,  to  enlarge,  to  enrich,  to 
complete  the  true  life  of  man,  and  by  and  through  him 
the  corporate  life  of  the  community." 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  address,  the  orchestra  played 
"  Morning"  from  the  Peer  Gynt  Suite,  by  Grieg.  The 
honorary  degrees  were  then  conferred  by  President 

C    224    ] 


The  Conferring  of  Degrees 

Faunce.  The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  was  first  given 
to  the  presidents  of  the  six  American  Colleges, — Har- 
vard, William  and  Mary,  Yale,  College  of  New  Jersey 
( Princeton ) ,  King's  ( Columbia ) ,  and  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania, — as  they  were  founded  before  Brown 
University.  President  Arthur  Twining  Hadley ,  of  Yale 
University,  and  President  Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  of 
Columbia  University,  were  given  degrees  hi  abse?itia, 
as  they  were  prevented  from  coming  in  person  to  re- 
ceive them.  The  candidates  were  severally  presented  to 
President  Faunce  by  Walter  Goodnow  Everett,  Ph.D., 
Professor  of  Philosophy  and  Natural  Theology.  Each 
candidate  was  escorted  to  the  platform  by  a  member  of 
the  Faculty,  and  invested  with  the  appropriate  academic 
hood  as  the  degree  was  conferred.  The  list  of  candidates 
with  the  degree  given,  together  with  the  characteriza- 
tion of  each  by  President  Faunce,  follows: 

Doctor  of  Laws 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  teacher,  editor,  executive,  apply- 
ing with  rare  skill  philosophical  principles  to  education  and 
to  government. 

Andrew  Carnegie,  organizer  of  industrj-,  leader  in  philan- 
thropy, consistent  and  tireless  advocate  of  international  ar- 
bitration and  the  federation  of  the  world. 

Le  Baron  Bradford  Colt,  experienced  and  learned  judge, 
carrying  judicial  temper  and  training  into  halls  of  legis- 
lation. 

Howard  Edwards,  head  of  a  sister  institution,  disseminating 
knowledge  of  practical  arts  throughout  our  state. 

Stephen  Ostrom  Edwards,  skilled  interpreter  of  the  law,  pub- 
lic servant  without  public  office,  trusted  counselor  of  the 
University. 

[  225 ;] 


Brown  University 

Frank  Johnson  Goodnow,  recently  adviser  to  an  awakened 
empire,  now  returning  as  leader  of  a  university  to  which  all 
American  colleges  are  happily  in  debt. 

Arthur  Twining  Hadley,  scholar,  educator,  and  publicist, 
uniting  the  world  of  scholarship  with  the  world  of  action. 

John  Grier  Hibben,  teacher  of  philosophy,  head  of  the  univer- 
sity which  gave  us  at  Brown  our  first  President  and  our  in- 
spiring example. 

Alexander  Crombie  Humphreys,  leader  in  the  training  of  young 
engineers  in  applied  science  and  devotion  to  the  public  good. 

Clarke  Howard  Johnson,  chief  justice  of  our  commonwealth, 
whose  patience,  integrity,  and  knowledge  assure  righteous 
judgment  to  all. 

Abbott  Lawrence  Lowell,  honored  representative  of  our  old- 
est university,  leading  it  to  express  in  new  forms  its  per- 
petual care  for  the  soul  of  youth. 

John  Bassett  Moore,  counselor  of  our  government,  teacher  of 
that  international  law  which,  when  it  shall  have  might  as 
it  has  right,  will  establish  among  the  warring  nations  an 
enduring  peace. 

RoMULO  Sebastian  Naon,  a  leader  of  the  South  American  re- 
publics, mediator  when  war  impends,  interpreter  and  friend 
in  days  of  peace. 

William  Peterson,  trained  in  the  Old  World  to  train  men  in 
the  New,  deriving  from  ancient  classics  the  skill  to  shape 
modern  life. 

Frederico  Alfonso  Pezet,  diplomatic  representative  of  the  land 
whose  fateful  history  we  read  in  youth,  in  whose  developing 
resources  and  friendly  attitude  we  rejoice. 

Carl  Copping  Plehn,  sometime  student  in  Brown  University, 
now  teacher  and  guide  in  principles  of  taxation  and  finance 
in  a  great  university  and  a  great  commonwealth. 

[     226    ] 


The  Conferring  of  Degrees 

Jacob  Gould  Schurman,  pliilosopher,  j)ublicist,  educator,  train- 
ing thousands  for  the  service  of  the  Repubhc. 

Edgar  Fahs  Smith,  trained  investigatorand  teacher,  faithful  ad- 
ministrator of  an  ancient  trust. 

Robert  Cooper  Smith,  practitioner  and  teacher  of  law,  eloquent 
interpreter  of  the  rights  and  duties  of  men. 

William  Howard  Taft,  promoted  from  the  White  House  to 
the  professor's  chair,  retiring  from  the  one  amid  universal 
expressions  of  good- will,  and  welcomed  to  the  other  by  all 
the  scholars  of  the  land. 

Martha  Carey  Thomas,  in  the  higher  education  of  women  a 
courageous,  efficient,  and  honored  leader. 

Lyon  Gardiner  Tyler,  for  a  quarter-century  administrator  of 
our  second  colonial  college,  holding  it  true  to  the  traditions 
of  the  southland  and  the  service  of  the  nation. 

Doctor  of  Letters 

William  Cunningham,  honored  teacher  of  religious  faith  and 
economic  history,  representing  here  the  university  which 
trained  Roger  Williams  and  many  of  the  early  leaders  in 
American  life. 

John  Franklin  Jameson,  leader  in  historical  research,  once  pro- 
fessor at  Brown,  now  teacher  of  teachers  throughout  the 
land. 

John  Matthews  Manly,  scholarly  interpreter  and  inspiring 
teacher  of  the  mother  tongue. 

Herbert  Putnam,  devoted  and  trusted  guardian  of  a  nation's 
books. 

James  Ford  Rhodes,  historian  and  man  of  letters,  whose  pen 
illuminates  all  the  path  the  nation  has  trod. 

Paul  Shorey,  representative  of  classic  culture,  translating  for 
an  industrial  age  the  undying  message  of  the  Greeks. 

C    227    ] 


Brown  University 

Frank  William  Taussig,  distinguished  student,  author,  and 
teacher  in  the  ever-expanding  field  of  economic  science. 

Doctor  of  Science 

Louis  Agricola  Bauer,  student  of  the  magnetic  forces  of  the 
earth,  compassing  land  and  sea  to  discover  the  mysterious 
laws  by  which  our  globe  is  controlled. 

Simon  Flexner,  leader  and  organizer  of  medical  research, 
constructive  critic  of  medical  education. 

Doctor  of  Divinity 

Charles  Reynolds  Brown,  preacher  of  old  faiths  in  new  light, 
able  organizer  of  the  first  School  of  Religion  a\  ithin  the 
American  church. 

Austen  Kennedy  DeBlois,  minister  of  historic  churches  east 
and  west,  keeping  the  scholar's  aim  through  years  of  Chris- 
tian toil. 

George  Angier  Gordon,  through  Scottish  boyhood  and  Amer- 
ican manhood  keeping  the  faith,  announcing  in  clear  tones 
to  all  the  world  the  prophet's  vision. 

George  Hodges,  educator  and  inspirer  of  preachers,  training 
men  to  utter  the  ancient  message  in  modern  tongues. 

Shailer  Mathews,  author,  teacher,  administrator,  chosen  rep- 
resentative of  the  federated  churches  of  America. 

Master  of  Arts 

John  Davison  Rockefeller,  Jr.  ,  student  of  social  ills,  unspoiled 
by  fortune,  steadfast  in  support  of  charity,  education,  and 
religion. 

After  the  conferring  of  degrees  the  orchestra  played 
the"  Coronation  March"  from  the  "  Prophet,"  by  Mey- 
erbeer. President  Faunce  pronounced  the  benediction. 

[  228  ] 


The  Conferring  of  Degrees 

The  academic  procession  was  then  reformed  as  on  the 
previous  day,  and  marched  to  the  front  campus  in  the 
same  order,  where  it  was  dismissed. 


C    229    ^ 


Andrews  Field  Athletic  Exercises 

ON  Thursday  afternoon,  fifteenth  October,  an  Ath- 
letic Exhibition  was  held  at  Andrews  Field  to 
illustrate  the  development  of  physical  training  from 
school  to  college.  This  exhibition  included  pageantry 
and  folk-dances  by  school  children;  relay  races  be- 
tween teams  from  various  secondary  schools  in  Provi- 
dence and  vicinity ;  an  inter-class  relay  race  between 
teams  of  the  four  undergraduate  classes;  a  relay  race 
between  college  teams  representing  Brown  and  Wes- 
leyan ;  and  a  football  game  between  the  elevens  of  the 
same  colleges.  Several  hundred  boys  and  girls  of  va- 
rious nationalities  took  part  in  the  various  exercises,  be- 
sides the  participating  students  from  secondary  school 
and  college.  The  Rhode  Island  Boy  Scouts,  under  the 
command  of  Mr.  John  E.  England,  performed  escort, 
guide,  and  guard  duty.  A  large  audience  composed  of 
alumni,  students,  and  guests  of  the  University  viewed 
the  spectacle  and  games. 

The  exercises  by  pupils  in  the  grammar  schools  of 
Providence  were  carried  out  under  the  direction  of  Miss 
Ellen  Le  Garde,  Director  of  Physical  Training,  assisted 
by  various  teachers  in  the  Providence  schools.  After  a 
"  Grand  March,''  the  "  Indian  Tribes  of  Rhode  Island  " 
were  depicted  by  pupils  from  the  Broad  Street  and  Ro- 
chambeau  Avenue  Grammar  Schools, including  an  "  In- 
dian Dance''  by  pupils  from  the  latter  school.  Scenes 
followed  descriptive  of  the  first  settlers  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Providence  Plantations, including  "Roger  Williams 
andfivecompanions,William  Harris,  John  Smith,  Joshua 
Verin,  Thomas  Angell,  and  Francis  Wickes;"  also 
"Anne  Hutchinson,  Mary  Dyer,  and  Quaker  compan- 

C  230  3 


Andrews  Field  Exercises 

ions."  These  were  represented  by  the  graduating  class 
of  1915  of  the  Peace  Street  Grammar  School.  Another 
scene  depicted  the  Landing  of  Roger  Williams  on  Slate 
Rock  in  1636  and  his  welcome  of  "What  Cheer"  by 
the  Indians.  This  pageantry  was  rehearsed  and  carried 
out  under  the  direction  of  Miss  Mary  E.  Sullivan,  of 
the  Peace  Street  School.  Folk-dances  in  costume  came 
next  on  the  programme:  a  Celtic  dance  (jig),  by  the 
Academy  Avenue  Grammar  School,  under  the  training 
of  Miss  Harriet  Parker  and  Miss  Madeline  Johnson; 
a  Scotch  reel,  by  the  Vineyard  Street  Grammar  School 
under  that  of  Miss  Carrie  A.  Swift;  a  Swedish  dance 
(Axendansen), by  the  CandaceStreetGrammar  School, 
under  that  of  Miss  Mary  C.  Greene;  and  an  Italian 
dance  ( Tarantella ) ,  by  the  Knight  Street  School, under 
that  of  Miss  Mary  T.Tillinghast,  Miss  Kathryn  Lyons, 
and  Miss  Marguerite  Rockwell.  In  the  final  event, 
described  as  "The  Melting  Pot,"  all  the  children  with 
flags  surrounded  "Columbia,"  and,  with  a  "Salute  to 
the  Flag,"  each  joined  vocally  in  the  pledge:  "  I  pledge 
allegiance  to  my  Flag  and  to  the  Republic  for  which  it 
stands;  one  Nation  indivisible,  with  Freedom  and  Jus- 
tice for  all."  The  audience  assisted  in  bringing  this  por- 
tion of  the  programme  to  a  close  by  joining  in  the  salute 
to  the  flag  and  in  the  singing  of  "America." 

The  secondary  schools  taking  part  in  the  mile  re- 
lay running  races  were:  the  Providence  Classical  High 
School,  the  Providence  Technical  High  School, the  East 
Providence  High  School,  the  East  Greenwich  Acad- 
emy, the  Moses  Brown  School,  the  Providence  Hope 
Street  High  School,  the  Pawtucket  High  School,  the 
Woon socket  High  School,  and  the  B.  M.  C.  Durfee 
High  School,  of  Fall  River.  Each  school  furnished  four 

C  231  ^ 


Brown  University 

runners,  each  running  two  hundred  and  twenty  yards. 
The  first  five  schools  named  took  the  honors, the  Moses 
Brown  School  having  to  its  credit  the  time  of  1.404/5 
for  the  half-mile. 

In  the  inter-class  races  the  Freshman  team,  class 
of  1918,  consisting  of  Frederick  Billings  Brooks,  John 
Francis  Isaac,  Allison  Miller,  and  WiUiam  Allenwood 
Murray,  won  the  mile  relay  race  in  1.381/2  for  the 
half-mile.  In  the  two-mile  relay  race,  the  Brown  team, 
consisting  of  Lawrence  Hall, '15,  Elliot  Harris  Bos- 
worth, '16,  Albert  Bullock  Cook, '16, and  MilbornEddy 
Saunders,  '16,  won  in  8.282/5  over  the  Wesleyan  team. 

In  the  football  match  the  line-up  of  the  Brown  team 
was  as  follows:  Right  end,  William  Rhodes  Le  Roy 
McBee, '16;  right  tackle,  Mark  Farnum,  '18;  right 
guard,  Allen  Guy  Maxwell, '16;  centre,  Seth  Kimball 
Mitchell,  '15;  left  guard,  Aaron  Elmer  Gottshall,  '15; 
left  tackle,  Raymond  Belcher  Ward,'i  7 ;  left  end,  Wil- 
liam Nicholas  Ormsby,'i 6;  quarterback,  James  Patrick 
Murphy, '17;  left  halfback,  Leonard  Hulit  Norcross, 
'18;  right  halfback,  Harold  Patterson  Andrews, '16; 
full  back,  John  Colvin  Butner,  Jr., '18.  Substitutes  sent 
in:  Jesse  Mitchell  Bailey,  '16;  Edward  Warren  Blue, 
'16;  Theodore  Chandler, '  1 5 ;  Leslie  Russell  Clark  ,'18; 
Irving  Scott  Eraser,  '17;  Ralph  Harry  Gordon,  '18; 
Walter  Kenneth  Sprague,  '17;  Edgar  Jonathan  Staff, 
'15;  Byron  Lillibridge  West,  '15.  The  final  score  was 
Brown  16,  Wesleyan  o.The  officials  were:  referee, Carl 
Marshall  ( Harvard ) ;  umpire, T.  S.  Bergen ;  head  lines- 
man, E.  J.  Thorpe  ( De  La  Salle). 


C  232  ;] 


The  University  Dinner 

A  UNIVERSITY  Dinner,  tendered  by  the  col- 
lege to  the  delegates  and  other  invited  guests, 
brought  to  a  close  the  festivities  of  Celebration  Week. 
The  dinner  was  given  at  Churchill  House,  Providence, 
on  Thursday  evening,  fifteenth  October.  An  informal 
reception  of  the  guests,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  took 
place  between  half  after  seven  and  eight  o'clock.  The 
dinner  was  served  at  fifty-one  tables,  which  filled  the 
main  rooms  and  overflowed  into  the  gallery.  After 
hosts  and  guests  to  the  number  of  three  hundred  had 
seated  themselves  at  the  tables,  grace  was  said  by  the 
Rt.  Rev.  James  DeWolf  Perry,  Bishop  of  Rhode  Island. 
Dr.  William  Williams  Keen,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  a  senior 
member  of  the  Board  of  Fellows,  presided  at  the  head 
table.  At  his  right  were  President  Faunce,  Ambassador 
Naon,  Governor  Pothier,  Chancellor  Arnold  B.  Chace, 
Mrs.  John  Nicholas  Brown,  Minister  Pezet,  Bishop 
Perry,  Chief  Justice  Johnson,  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie, 
and  Senator  Le  Baron  B.  Colt.  At  his  left  were  the  Hon. 
William  H.Taft,  President  Lowell,  Mr.  Robert  Cooper 
Smith,  K. C,  Archdeacon  Cunningham,  Mr.  Henry 
D.  Sharpe,  Principal  William  Peterson,  President  M. 
Carey  Thomas,  Mr.  Rowland  G.  Hazard,  and  the  Hon. 
Arthur  L.  Brown. 

After  the  dinner  Dr.  Keen  opened  the  speaking  by 
saying: 

PRESIDENT  Faunce,  President  Taft,  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen:  After  so  many  welcomes  as  you  have 
had,  it  is  best  that  I  should  not  tender  you  another, 
though  you  may  be  sure  that  it  would  be  as  hearty  as 

[   233   ] 


Brown  University 

any  of  the  others  did  I  venture  to  give  it  formal  ex- 
pression. May  I  repeat  a  suggestion  just  made  to  me? 
Former  President  Andrews  has  been  in  very  poor 
health,  and  the  suggestion  is  that  on  this  anniversary  of 
the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  year  of  our  foundation  the 
Chairman  of  the  Celebration  Committee,  Mr.  Henry  D. 
Sharpe,  be  requested  to  send  a  telegram  to  him  convey- 
ing the  cordial  greetings  and  best  wishes  of  the  Uni- 
versity and  of  all  the  friends  of  the  institution.  The 
unanimous  "Ay"  is  your  emphatic  wish,  and  I  will  ask 
Mr.  Sharpe  kindly  to  write  the  telegram  and  send  it  to 
former  President  Andrews. 

I  presume  that  I  was  asked  to  preside  here  because 
I  am  the  oldest  member  of  the  Corporation  in  active 
service.  Really  it  was  a  mistake,  because  I  am  sure  that 
you  do  not  appreciate  how  very  old  I  am.  My  antiquity 
was  brought  to  my  attention  very  pointedly  the  other 
day  in  Philadelphia,  following  the  May  Day  Festival 
at  Bryn  Mawr  College.  They  always  present  a  miracle 
play  or  something  similar  to  it.  This  year  the  miracle 
play  was  entitled  "Noah's  Flood."  Meeting  one  of  my 
warmest  friends  two  or  three  days  after  this,  at  a  wed- 
ding reception,  she  pounced  upon  me  and  asked  in  the 
most  eager  manner,  "Dr.  Keen,  did  you  see  'Noah's 
Flood'.?"  I  said  solemnly, "Madam,  I  am  willing  to 
confess  to  the  Middle  Ages,  but  I  must  draw  the  line 
somewhere,  and  I  draw  it  at  Noah's  Flood."  Moreover, 
unless  I  had  been  one  of  Noah's  own  family,  it  is  clear 
that  I  should  have  been  drowned. 

The  first  speaker  on  our  programme  is  a  gentleman 
well  known  to  you  all,  and  who  splendidly  illustrates 
our  boast  that  this  land  is  a  land  of  opportunity — a 
French  Canadian  boy  who  came  to  this  country  early  in 

C    234   ] 


The  University  Dinner 

life.  A  few  years  after  he  was  established  here  he 
became  a  member  of  the  legislature,  then  mayor,  then 
lieutenant-governor,  and  then  governor.  He  has  been 
so  often  elected  and  reelected  governor  that  apparently 
you  have  got  into  the  habit  of  so  doing.  I  have  the 
honor  of  introducing  Governor  Pothier. 

Governor  Aram  J.  Pothier  spoke  in  substance  as  follows: 

DR.  Keen,  President  Taft,  and  guests  of  Brown 
University,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  This  memo- 
rable occasion  in  the  life  of  one  of  the  foremost  institu- 
tions of  learning  in  America  marks  an  epoch  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  state,  and  I  feel  this  evening  fortunate  in- 
deed to  be  here  to  meet  such  a  distinguished  gathering, 
and  to  be  able  to  extend  to  them  all  the  most  cordial 
welcome  of  Rhode  Island  and  its  citizens. 

Public  officials  grow  by  experience  to  regard  gov- 
ernmental efficiency  as  of  the  greatest  importance  in 
the  general  scheme  of  social  advancement.  There  is 
to-day  a  wide  field  for  the  exercise  of  statesmanship  in 
the  true  sense,  that  statesmanship  that  sees  beyond  the 
limitations  of  partisanship,  that  places  the  welfare  of 
the  nation  above  the  needs  of  localities,  that  advocates 
justice  and  equity,  and  that  subordinates  self-interest  to 
the  interest  of  the  state.  The  university  stands  as  one 
of  the  great  institutions  of  enlightenment.  It  recognizes 
the  power  for  good  in  the  statesmanship  which  I  have 
described,  and  it  is  striving  with  determination  to  sup- 
ply the  need  in  our  national  life.  That  its  efforts  may 
be  crowned  with  success  will  be  our  earnest  hope.  Men 
of  Brown !  You  have  just  cause  to  be  proud — proud  of 
your  University,  of  her  expansion,  of  her  influence,  and 
of  the  achievements  of  her  sons.  Among  the  profes- 


Brown  University 

sions,  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  on  the  bench,  in  public 
life,  her  name  stands  preeminent.  The  fame  of  Brown 
extends  throughout  the  civilized  world.  In  every  land 
her  sons  are  found  diligent  in  their  chosen  fields  of  en- 
deavor, and  contributing,  the  more  for  her  teachings, 
to  the  development  and  advancement  of  the  peoples 
of  the  earth.  May  the  influence  of  such  men  as  Brown 
sends  out  into  the  world  be  always  for  peace,  for  jus- 
tice, for  truth,  and  for  freedom  ! 

Dr.  Keen.  This  is  not  the  first  time  that  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  introducing  the  second  speaker  of  the 
evening.  When,  a  few  years  ago,  at  the  festival  dinner 
which  always  concludes  the  general  meeting  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  I  had  on  my  right  the 
"American  Commonwealth"  as  represented  by  James 
Bryce,  and  on  my  left  the  "Government  of  England" 
as  represented  by  the  President  of  Harvard  University, 
I  felt  that  it  was  indeed  a  notable  occasion.  When  Har- 
vard was  more  than  a  century  and  a  quarter  old  our 
little  upstart  of  a  college  in  Rhode  Island  first  sprang 
into  existence.  It  had  a  President,  and  a  Faculty  of  one 
— the  President  himself.  It  had  one  student.  Its  treas- 
ury was  like  the  earth  at  its  genesis,  so  nebulous  that 
it  was  "without  form  and  void,"  or,  to  vary  the  form 
but  not  the  fact,  it  was  full  to  overflowing  with  emp- 
tiness. God  bless  Harvard  and  her  president!  We  all 
yield  the  pas  to  her — the  first  of  American  universities, 
who  comes  to  give  us  a  birthday  benediction.  I  have  the 
honor  of  introducing  Dr.  Abbott  Lawrence  Lowell,  the 
President  of  Harvard  University,  and  now  our  fellow 
alumnus. 

c  236 :} 


The  University  Dinner 

President  Abbott  Lawrence  Lowell  spoke  as  follows: 

DR.  Keen,  President  Taft, and  members  and  guests 
of  Brown  University :  The  toastmaster  this  even- 
ing has  omitted  to  inform  me  how  long  I  am  expected 
to  speak,  and  I  am  loth  to  give  short  measure  at  a  fes- 
tival of  this  kind.  It  is  pleasant  to  meet  on  an  occasion 
where  we  revere  the  past.  It  has  been  too  much  the 
fashion  for  our  historians  to  blacken  the  sepulchres  of 
our  ancestors  and  to  pick  out  all  their  faults.  Our  his- 
torians have  conclusively  proved  that  every  settlement 
in  the  United  States  has  contributed  to  the  life  of  this 
country  its  share  of  error.  Massachusetts  and  Boston 
were  founded  by  the  Puritans,  who  were  very  anxious 
to  worship  God  in  their  own  way  and  to  prevent  Him 
from  being  worshipped  in  any  other  way ;  and  for  that 
purpose  they  expelled  all  eccentrics  to  Rhode  Island, 
and  the  exiles  came  down  here  so  much  to  the  terror 
of  former  inhabitants  that  all  the  natural  virtues  fled 
and  established  themselves  in  the  bay. 

After  all,  these  errors  were  merely  the  reverse  side 
of  the  good,  and  I  think,  as  we  look  back  at  history,  it 
is  the  good  that  has  survived  and  not  the  error.  The 
good  side  of  Puritanism,  as  I  understand  it,  was  that 
the  Puritan  regarded  every  act  in  life,  however  trivial, 
as  having  a  moral  value  and  moral  consequence;  and 
that  feeling  has  sunk  deep  into  the  bone  and  sinew  of 
our  nation.  The  great  thing  about  the  establishment  of 
Brown  University  was  the  spirit  of  broad  toleration  in 
which  its  foundation  was  laid — no,  not  toleration,  but 
the  recognition  of  the  right  and  duty  of  every  kind  of 
religion  to  take  its  part  in  the  direction  of  education. 

But  we  are  met  to-day  not  to  discuss  history,  nor  even 
to  discuss  education.  We  are  come  here  for  the  celebra- 

[   237  ] 


Brown  University 

tion  of  a  birthday.  The  sons,  kinsmen,  and  friends  of 
Alma  Mater  have  come  here  to  lay  their  homage  at  the 
feet  of  the  gray-haired  young  woman,  the  gray-haired 
young  mother,  who  sits  upon  the  hill  above  Providence. 
I  say  gray-haired  because  no  institution  really  reaches 
its  greatest  influence  over  the  sentiments  and  hearts  of 
men  until  it  has  passed  beyond  the  span  of  human  life, 
until  no  one  can  remember  its  origin,  and  every  one 
looks  back  upon  it  as  a  great  tradition.  The  sister  uni- 
versities here  in  America  trace  back  to  an  ancient  lin- 
eage ;  they  have  a  noble  origin ;  they  trace  back  to  the 
old  universities,  to  Bologna  and  Salerno.  It  is  a  long 
and  glorious  life,  reaching  back  to  the  times  when  the 
pioneers  of  learning  kept  the  lights  burning  for  those 
who  should  come  after ;  and  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  in- 
spirations of  life  to  feel  one's  self  somehow  an  instru- 
ment in  the  long,  long  process  in  which  the  tool  itself 
is  unimportant  compared  to  the  great  living  work ;  to 
feel  one 's  self  a  worker  in  that  long,  long  service  which 
needs  every  one  who  will  put  his  hand  to  the  plow. 

In  Westminster  Abbey  there  is  a  sentence  written 
upon  the  monument  of  the  Wesleys  which  has  always 
impressed  me  deeply.  It  is  in  Wesley's  own  words: 
"God  buries  his  workman  but  carries  on  his  work." 
That  is  the  feeling  that  any  one  must  have  who  belongs 
to  an  institution  that  runs  far  into  the  past  and  that  will 
run  into  a  long,  indefinite  future;  an  institution  in  which 
one  can  feel  he  is  a  link  in  a  long,  long  chain  of  men 
whose  efforts  have  been  directed  to  doing  the  w^ork  set 
before  them,  not  with  a  view  to  the  present,  but  with 
a  view  to  the  future. 

And  then  I  say  that  this  mother  is  not  only  gray- 
haired,  but  that  she  is  young.  She  is  young  because  the 

C   238   ] 


The  University  Dinner 

institution  is  ever  changing,  ever  fresh,  ever  new,  ever 
strong.  It  is  our  business  to  see  that  it  does  change,  and 
that  it  keeps  fresh,  and  new,  and  strong.  It  is  our  busi- 
ness to  see  that  we  retain  all  that  is  vital  in  the  tradi- 
tions that  we  have  received  from  the  past,  and  that  we 
add  to  them  all  that  is  required  to  fulfil  the  wants  of  the 
present.  More,  perhaps,  than  at  any  other  time  in  the 
history  of  our  country  is  this  needed,  when  we  recall 
that  on  the  other  side  of  the  ocean  young  men  are  per- 
ishing to-day  who  would  otherwise  light  the  lamp  for 
the  future,  that  lives  are  being  cut  off  on  both  sides 
which  are  precious  beyond  measure  for  the  future  civil- 
ization of  man.  Remember  Galois,  that  young  French- 
man who  was  cut  off  many  years  ago  in  a  duel  at 
twenty-one,  and  left  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  the  founda- 
tions of  a  great  branch  of  mathematics.  How  many 
young  lives  that  would  have  contributed  to  human 
knowledge  are  now  being  cut  off  we  do  not  know,  we 
never  shall  know,  we  never  can  know,  but  that  the 
future  is  being  robbed  is  certain ;  and  it  is  for  us  to  do 
the  work  which  those  men  will  have  left  undone.  It  is 
for  us  to  repair  in  our  institutions  of  learning,  as  well 
as  we  can,  that  which  is  lost. 

Representing  the  sister  universities  of  Brown,  we 
come  here  to-day  simply  to  tell  her  our  wish  that  she 
may  be  ever  younger  and  more  beautiful  as  she  sits 
proudly  upon  her  hill,  crowned  with  her  ever  whiter 
and  whiter  hair! 

Dr.  Keen:  The  next  speaker  is  a  composite  Briton. 
He  was  born  in  Edinburgh,  married  in  Dublin,  has  lived 
in  London,  and  is  now  domiciled  in  the  ancient  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge.  He  has  come  hither  in  spite  of  all  the 

C   239   ] 


Brown  University 

perils  of  war  and  the  discomforts  of  the  deep,  to  bring 
us  salutations  and  blessings  from  our  European  breth- 
ren, and  especially  from  the  British  universities.  He  is 
a  prolific  author,  a  winner  of  many  prizes,  and  repre- 
sents to-day  a  feature  which  was  very  prominent  in  the 
early  history  of  Brown.  In  1 769,  at  the  first  Commence- 
ment, among  the  twenty-two  honorary  degrees  con- 
ferred,eight  were  given  to  British  clergymen. The  next 
year  we  gave  six.  Then  came  on  the  War  of  the  Revo- 
lution, when  the  college  was  closed.  Soon  after  the  Rev- 
olution, when  the  college  was  reopened,  we  find  that 
we  gave  British  scholars  scattering  degrees  at  first,  but 
in  the  year  1785  we  conferred  five  honorary  degrees 
on  inhabitants  of  Great  Britain,  in  1791  five,  in  1792 
five,  and  in  1 793  six.  It  is  an  early  habit  that  we  have 
happily  revived  to-day.  It  is  with  great  pleasure,  there- 
fore, that  I  introduce  to  you  our  fellow  alumnus,  the 
Venerable  Archdeacon  William  Cunningham,  of  Trin- 
ity College,  Cambridge. 

Archdeacon  Cunningham's  address  was  in  substance 
as  follows: 

DR.  Keen, and  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  have  been 
asked  to  perform  the  arduous  task  of  conveying 
to  you  the  congratulations  of  the  universities  of  Europe 
on  your  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary.  Perhaps 
I  may  give  my  credentials  for  presuming  to  attempt 
such  an  onerous  mission.  Looking  back  to  my  student 
life,  I  feel  that  some  of  my  happiest  days  were  passed 
in  the  University  of  Tiibingen  and  subsequently  in  the 
University  of  Marburg.  I  am  also  an  Edinburgh  grad- 
uate, and  I  am  a  St.  Andrews  graduate.  Besides,  I  have 
been  for  some  time  past  a  teacher  in  Cambridge  Uni- 

[  240  ^ 


The  University  Dinner 

versity.  I  therefore  feel  that  I  have  some  personal  know- 
ledge of  European  universities  of  different  types. 

Fifteen  years  ago  I  spent  some  months  in  America. 
As  I  visited  one  university  after  another  I  had  the 
opportunity  of  making  acquaintance  with  a  good  deal 
that  went  on  in  various  colleges,  I  had  the  privilege  of 
holding  official  positions,  first  at  Harvard  and  later  in 
the  University  of  Wisconsin.  There  were  many  fea- 
tures that  struck  me  as  curiously  like  what  I  had  been 
familiar  with  as  a  student  in  Edinburgh  University.  Of 
course  I  know  the  ancestry  of  your  oldest  university ; 
Emmanuel  College  in  Cambridge  was  reproduced  in 
Harvard,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have  been  the 
sole  source  of  academic  life  in  America.  Different  ele- 
ments which  have  been  at  work  here  can  be  traced  out ; 
and  I  have  been  struck  with  the  resemblance  between 
your  colleges  and  the  typical  Scottish  university.  For 
one  thing,  your  colleges  have  a  close  contact  with  civil 
life,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  Scottish  universities. 
A  gathering  such  as  there  was  at  Andrews  Field  this 
afternoon,  where  a  university  celebration  was  joined  in 
by  all  the  educational  institutions  in  town,  would  have 
seemed  inappropriate  in  some  European  universities.  It 
would  not  be  so  unnatural  in  Scottish  universities.  The 
close  connection  between  the  academic  life  and  the  life 
of  the  community  as  a  whole  is  one  of  which  gowns- 
men and  townsmen  are  alike  conscious. 

Another  thing:  the  college  course  which  I  went 
through  in  Edinburgh  University  was  similar  in  many 
ways  to  the  college  course  which  I  find  existing  here  in 
America.  More  than  that,  in  regard  to  the  matter  and 
method  of  teaching,  the  resemblance  to  the  Scottish 
universities  is  very  close.  The  systematic  teaching  of 

C   241    ] 


Brown  University 

English,  the  making  English  grammar  and  English  lit- 
erature an  important  branch  of  study,  brought  me  back 
to  the  Scottish  university.  There  had  been  no  professor, 
no  chair  of  English  literature  in  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge until  about  three  years  ago.  It  was  through  the 
Latin  language  that  we  in  England  approached  the 
humanities,  rather  than  through  English  literature.  In 
the  Scottish  university  English  literature  was  taken  to 
a  much  larger  extent  as  the  basis  of  polite  learning. 
Scots  found  that,  when  they  went  out  into  England,  and 
beyond  into  the  larger  field  of  the  British  Empire,  where 
so  many  Scottish  men  have  since  done  good  work,  it 
was  well  for  them  to  be  able  to  talk  and  write  good 
English.  The  Scots  saw  on  which  side  their  bread  was 
buttered, and  they  studied  English  carefully.  Those  are 
elements  which  seem  to  indicate  a  family  likeness  be- 
tween the  Scottish  and  the  American  universities. 

I  appeared  yesterday  as  a  delegate  of  Cambridge  in 
particular,  but  I  may  claim  to  speak  now  on  behalf  of 
other  universities  in  the  British  Isles  as  well.  If  it  be 
true,  as  I  believe,  that  the  Scottish  universities  have 
helped  to  plant  a  great  living  power  in  this  country, 
they  congratulate  you  on  your  vigorous  life,  on  the 
way  in  which  you  have  assimilated  all  sorts  of  help 
from  other  lands.  A  vigorous  stock  has  been  planted  in 
this  land  which  has  had  the  greatest  influence  on  the 
New  World. 

I  should  like  to  say  one  word  about  my  personal 
associations  with  this  state  of  Rhode  Island.  When  I 
was  here  fifteen  years  ago  I  felt  that  the  university  in- 
fluence was  affecting  men  in  civil  life  who  had  no  aca- 
demic positions.  I  was  the  guest  of  William  B.  Weeden, 
whom  I  greatly  miss  on  returning  here  to-day,  a  man 

C  242  3 


The  University  Dinner 

engaged  in  business,  who  devoted  himself  enthusiasti- 
cally to  important  historical  studies.  It  has  been  a  great 
satisfaction  to  me  to  know  that  he  was  so  much  thought 
of  among  students  of  yours,  and  that  he  also  earned  the 
recognition  which  prophets  so  rarely  earn  in  their  own 
country  and  was  enrolled  among  the  honorary  gradu- 
ates of  Brown  University.  I  have  other  associations  with 
Rhode  Island.  George  Berkeley  was  one  of  the  heroes 
of  my  Edinburgh  days,  when  I  was  a  student  under 
Fraser,who  edited  Berkeley,  and  who  inspired  me  with 
something  of  his  enthusiasm  for  that  remarkable  man. 
Berkeley  had  a  great  power  of  writing  beautiful  Eng- 
lish. He  had  also  exceptional  merits  as  a  Christian  phi- 
losopher. He  was  also  a  man  with  strong  philanthropic 
interests.  This  man  was  a  great  connecting  link  be- 
tween English  culture  in  his  day  and  American  culture. 
On  a  former  visit  to  Rhode  Island  I  went  to  see 
Berkeley's  seat,  and  I  felt  there  an  extraordinary  in- 
terest in  him  and  in  his  connection  with  this  state.  In 
Queenstown  Harbor  the  other  day  I  looked  out  toward 
Cloyne  Cathedral,  where  there  is  a  magnificent  monu- 
ment of  him ,  but  somehow  or  other,  when  I  had  crossed 
the  Atlantic  and  stood  on  the  campus  of  Brown,  I  found 
that  there  is  an  even  better  monument  here,  a  living 
witness  to  what  at  least  he  would  have  wished  to  have 
done,  something  that  embodies  the  desires  which  he 
cherished,  and  something  which  has  given  reality  to  his 
most  cherished  dreams,  in  Brown  University. 

Dr.  Keen.  At  the  dinners  of  the  American  Philosophi- 
cal Society  I  have  had  the  honor  of  introducing  sev- 
eral European  ambassadors,  but  never  until  this  even- 
ing have  I  had  the  high  honor  of  introducing  a  South 

C   243  ] 


Brown  University 

American  ambassador.  The  speaker  is  a  man  who  has 
hardly  reached  middle  life,  and  yet,  in  defiance  of  the 
idea  that  America  is  the  especial  country  of  young  men, 
we  can  point  to  the  Argentine  Republic  also  as  an 
equally  fine  field  for  young  men.  Our  guest  is  a  distin- 
guished scholar,  a  professor  of  philosophy  and  of  con- 
stitutional law  in  the  great  University  of  Buenos  Aires. 
He  has  filled,  also,  important  diplomatic  posts.  He  was, 
moreover,  a  delegate  to  the  second  Hague  Conference, 
and  recently  became  well  known  to  us  as  one  of  the 
three  South  American  delegates  who  tried  to  smooth 
the  path  to  peace  in  Mexico. 

I  have  the  honor  again  to  introduce  a  fellow  alum- 
nus— and  you  will  all  agree  with  me  that  Brown  has 
never  conferred  a  more  worthy  degree — His  Excel- 
lency Dr.  Romulo  S.  Naon,  the  ambassador  from  the 
Argentine  Republic. 

Ambassador  Naon  spoke  in  substance  as  follows : 

DR.  Keen,  President  Taft,  Governor  Pothier,  La- 
dies and  Gentlemen:  Fifty  years  ago,  just  about 
this  time,  Sarmiento,  the  first  Argentine  minister  pleni- 
potentiary to  the  United  States  and  later  the  greatest 
president  our  country  has  ever  had,  came  to  the  city  of 
Providence  to  sit  as  an  honorary  member  among  the 
members  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society.  That 
society  had  also  honored  with  the  same  distinction  an- 
other great  Argentine  patriot.  General  Mitre,  historian, 
poet,  and  eminent  statesman,  who  played  an  important 
role  in  the  organization  of  our  republic,  and  who  was 
the  first  to  occupy  the  presidency  after  the  thorough 
consolidation  of  our  republic  under  its  present  wise  con- 
stitution. These  two  names  live  in  the  hearts  and  in 

C   244  i] 


The  University  Dinner 

the  memory  of  my  compatriots  as  an  inspiration  and 
as  a  gospel.  Hence  you  can  imagine  my  emotion  at  this 
moment  when  I  breathe  the  atmosphere  which  has  been 
familiar  to  me  since  the  beginning  of  my  mental  life, 
inasmuch  as  we  feel  that  the  names  of  Providence  and 
Rhode  Island  are  associated  wqth  the  development  of 
the  moral  greatness  of  my  country. 

So  eloquent  a  recognition  as  that  accorded  by  the 
Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  in  those  by-gone  days 
could  not  but  constitute  for  Argentine  democracy,  then 
just  born,  a  demonstration  that  the  virtues  and  capa- 
cities of  its  citizens  were  to  give  her  the  position  for 
which  she  had  herself  long  been  striving.  So  at  that 
time  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  represented  at 
home  a  bond  between  my  country  and  this  state  which 
had  honored  the  virtues  of  our  great  men. 

Here  Sarmiento  found  another  bond  between  this 
beautiful  city  and  this  state  of  Rhode  Island  with  our 
country,  the  public  schools  which  we  have  established 
as  a  demonstration  to  the  Old  World  of  democratic  in- 
spiration. We  have  placed  the  name  of  Horace  Mann 
at  the  head  of  our  schools;  and  his  name  constitutes 
to-day  for  them  one  of  the  purest  models  of  republican 
patriotism.  In  the  catalogue  of  Argentine  moral  inspira- 
tions the  names  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  are 
themselves  consecrated.  In  the  successive  generations 
in  my  country  there  has  been  formed,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure from  the  writings  of  our  great  Sarmiento,  the  deep 
feeling  of  respect  which  my  countrymen  cherish  for  the 
high  moral  achievements  of  your  city  and  state. 

Consider,  then,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  emotion 
I  felt  on  receiving  to-day  from  a  university  as  illustri- 
ous as  Brown  this  mark  of  its  esteem.  We  have  still 

C   245  ] 


Brown  University 

another  bond  in  addition  to  those  created  by  the  Rhode 
Island  Historical  Society  and  the  publicschools, — Brown 
University,  an  institution  for  which  as  a  student  and  as 
a  university  man  I  have  always  entertained  the  warm- 
est admiration. 

I  cannot  resist  the  temptation,  before  closing,  of  re- 
calling some  words  of  Sarmiento.  In  his  famous  speech 
before  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society  he  said:  *'  But 
in  the  same  manner  there  is  no  effect  without  a  cause. 
So  also  does  it  happen  that  extremes  meet,  and  con- 
trasts shall  be  affinities,  and  it  might  be  that  between 
our  bay  and  the  Bay  of  Narragansett,  between  Buenos 
Aires  and  Providence,  between  the  extreme  north  of 
America  and  the  extreme  south  of  America,  there  ex- 
ist those  mysterious  cords  of  attraction  which  are  often 
found  between  different  suns."  I  would  be  glad,  should 
time  not  prevent  me,  to  of^er  you  the  result  of  my  mod- 
est reflection  on  these  words,  and  to  attempt  to  show 
how  those  mysterious  currents  of  attraction  exist  in  fact 
between  our  two  countries,  and  how  the  Argentine 
people,  after  admiringyour aspirations  and  yourachieve- 
ments  for  a  hundred  years,  have  come  to  share  your 
ideas;  and,  further,  to  record  the  determination  that 
that  southern  extreme  of  America,  to  which  Sarmiento 
referred,  is  to  have  its  share  with  that  of  the  extreme 
north  in  the  work  of  advancing  fraternity  and  good-will 
among  men  as  well  as  fraternity  and  good- will  among 
the  nations. 

I  wish  again  to  assure  you  of  my  profound  gratitude 
for  the  very  high  honor  you  have  bestowed  upon  me 
this  day.  I  receive  it  as  a  mark  of  homage  to  my  coun- 
try, where  the  name  of  yours  has  always  been  affection- 
ate and  familiar  to  us,  where  the  marvelous  develop- 

C  246  ;] 


The  University  Dinner 

ment  of  your  culture  and  your  progress  are  proclaimed 
with  the  most  sincere  enthusiasm  and  the  deepest  friend- 
ship, and  where,  finally,  we  get  the  best  expression  of 
the  principles  on  which  the  present  solid  foundation 
of  our  political  structure  is  built.  I  shall  therefore  cher- 
ish among  the  most  gratifying  recollections  of  my  life 
this  day  on  which,  honoring  my  country,  you  have  hon- 
ored me. 

Dr.  Keen.  I  have  only  time  to  allude  to  three  of  the 
many  distinctions  which  characterize  the  next  speaker. 
One  is  enough  for  most  of  us.  He  is  an  ex-Batonnier  of 
the  Canadian  bar;  second,  he  is  a  King's  Counsel;  and 
thirdly,  his  greatest  distinction  is  that  he  belongs  to  the 
family  of  Smith,  the  largest,  the  most  distinguished, 
and  the  most  ancient  of  all  the  families  of  the  world.  It 
gives  me  very  great  pleasure  to  introduce  the  head  of 
the  Clan  Smith,  Robert  Cooper  Smith,  the  well-known 
lawyer  from  Montreal,  still  another  fellow  alumnus. 

Mr.  Robert  Cooper  Smith  spoke  in  substance  as  follows: 

MR.  Chairman,  Mr.  President, Your  Excellency, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  do  not  remember  who 
it  was  that  said  that  there  are  times  in  every  man's 
life  when  he  must  be  content  to  lose  the  reputation  of 
being  wise  in  order  to  try  to  win  the  reputation  of 
being  kind.  I  feel  that  I  should  forfeit  the  possibility 
of  a  reputation  for  either  if  I  detained  you  by  a  speech 
this  evening.  One  might  be  forgiven,  I  imagine,  if  he 
endeavored  to  prolong  a  mellow  afterglow^  when  the 
sun  had  set  in  all  its  brilliancy,  but  I  doubt  very  much 
whether  anybody  is  to  be  pardoned  if  he  deliberately 
retards  the  sun  in  all  its  brilliancy.  You  are  all  waiting 


Brown  University 

to  hear  some  one  else,  and  yet  I  must  at  least  express 
the  very  high  appreciation  with  which  I  received  the 
great  honor  that  you  conferred  upon  me  to-day,  and 
I  must  also  express  my  great  delight  in  visiting  Brown 
University  again,  and  particularly  upon  so  very  inter- 
esting an  occasion  as  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  an- 
niversary of  its  foundation. 

What  changes  this  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  have 
witnessed!  The  map  of  the  world  has  been  altered; 
yet  I  imagine  that  the  changes,  governmental  and  ter- 
ritorial, have  not  been  as  great  as  the  changes  in  those 
things  that  may  be  said  to  make  up  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  world.  I  have  never  seen  your  first  curricu- 
lum, to  which  reference  was  made  yesterday  by  Justice 
Hughes,  but  it  must  be  a  very  plain  suggestion  of  the 
course  to-day.  In  McGill  University  we  had  a  very 
much  beloved  professor,  who  would  hardly  tell  you 
that  he  came  from  the  good  old  island,  from  Trinity 
College,  Dublin.  At  a  corporation  meeting  he  showed 
that  he  was  n't  quite  satisfied  with  the  march  of  prog- 
ress, and  he  said: ''  Now,  when  the  curriculum  was  last 
revised,  there  were  a  number  of  blanks  left,  and  it  was 
understood  that  when  the  university  was  enlarged 
those  blanks  would  be  filled.  Now,  what  have  they  done. ^ 
They  have  taken  away  those  blanks  and  have  put  actu- 
ally nothing  in  their  places."  Your  work,  your  curricu- 
lum, has  raced — has  kept  pace  with  the  years. 

I  suppose  every  one  has  some  order,  set  perhaps  from 
the  habits  of  thought,  of  the  faculties  which  he  culti- 
vates ;  and  intelligence  sets  up  for  itself  some  tables  of 
value.  The  tables  of  value  vary  with  the  individual,  and 
perhaps  there  is  no  greater  work  that  the  university 
does  than  to  assist  mankind  in  the  compilation  of  its 

[   248   ] 


The  University  Dinner 

tables  of  value.  It  has  accustomed  the  world  to  the 
truth  that  there  are  things  that  are  of  very  real  value 
that  cannot  be  bought  and  sold  by  the  pound ;  that  there 
are  things  of  great  value  that  are  not  listed  on  any 
stock  exchange;  that  there  are  great  moral  forces  that 
have  moved  the  world  and  will  move  the  world  again 
that  have  no  relation  whatever  to  iron  and  steel  and 
nitroglycerine  compounds. 

Have  all  these  tables  of  value  established  by  such  uni- 
versities as  yours  been  displaced.^  We  are  accustomed 
to  think  that  the  millennium  has  already  dawned.  Great 
men  and  good  and  true  the  world  over,  and  none  more 
so  than  the  main  figures  in  American  public  life  dur- 
ing the  last  twenty-five  years,  have  consecrated  their 
lives  to  the  great  cause  of  peace.  We  have  a  permanent 
court  established  at  The  Hague.  We  have  the  court  of 
international  justice  outlined.  We  have  more  than  that: 
we  have  added  to  all  this  prospect  the  splendid  example 
of  a  century  of  peace  between  the  English-speaking 
nations,  a  century  marked  by  many  trying  experiences 
and  vexed  questions  of  territory  left  long  enough  to  fes- 
ter, by  almost  everything  that  could  produce  war;  but 
with  an  unfortified  boundary  of  three  thousand  miles 
we  have  had  a  century  of  peace  because  your  great  men 
and  ours  did  not  set  up  might  above  right,  because 
when  we  made  treaties  we  kept  them  honorably,  be- 
cause national  necessity  was  never  allowed  to  stifle 
national  honor.  Who  can  doubt  but  that  that  century 
of  peace  is  a  lasting  honor  to  those  two  great  English- 
speaking  nations.? 

While  you  continue  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  peace, 
we  are  at  war — a  war  the  most  ghastly  that  this  world 
has  ever  seen.  You  know  as  much  about  the  causes 

[  249  H 


Brown  University 

of  the  present  war  as  I  do,  and  I  am  not  even  going 
to  refer  you  to  anything.  But  it  was  a  sad  awakening 
to  us  all — you  know  that — as  sad  as  it  was  possible  to 
have;  and  it  forced  upon  us  several  truths  in  rather  a 
brutal  fashion.  One  is  that  we  have  not  yet  reached  the 
millennium.  Another  is  that  peace  is  only  a  condition 
that,  according  tocircumstances, may  be  glorious  or  may 
be  ignoble.  And,  thirdly,  the  most  brutal  one  still,  that 
the  nation  that  will  save  itself  must  still  conserve  its 
virility.  It  is  too  soon  to  put  our  rifles  into  museums.  I 
thought  as  we  walked  up  the  hill  this  morning,  in  that 
procession  which  shall  ever  live  in  my  memory,  if  it 
should  encounter  heavy  artillery  charges  and  so  forth, 
what  would  be  the  chances  of  the  encounter.  We  can- 
not meet  arms  with  Ave  Marias,  nor  can  we  repel  steel 
with  syllogisms.  Yet  I  could  not  but  think  that  that 
army  marching  up  the  hill,  brilliant  with  varied  colors 
emblematic  of  intellectual  distinction,  that  that  silent 
procession  represented  in  reality  forces  truer,  higher, 
more  potent,  more  all-conquering,  than  any  army  of 
steel  and  iron,  of  guns  and  swords,  could  possibly  rep- 
resent. The  things  that  are  seen  are  temporal;  the 
things  that  are  unseen  are  eternal.  You  are  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  peace;  we  are  no  less  so  than  you  are,  so 
only  that  it  be  peace  with  justice  and  liberty. 

You  recall  that  classic  race-course  on  which  each 
of  the  contestants  had  to  bear  a  lighted  lamp,  and  none 
could  win  the  laurel  unless  he  arrived  at  the  goal  with 
his  lamp  still  burning.  You  began  less  than  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  ago.  You  made  magnificent  prog- 
ress from  the  first.  Your  problems  were  deep  and  were 
complex.  You  have  solved  them  by  wisdom.  You  had 
that  pertinacious  quality  derived  from  the  race  from 

C  250  ] 


The  University  Dinner 

which  you  sprung,  and  you  have  added  to  that  an  in- 
genuity born  from  a  new  world  and  its  necessities,  and 
upon  your  original  characteristics  you  have  built  up  a 
great  American  character  that  is  to-day  in  the  world 
equally  formidable  and  admirable ;  and  so  you  have  per- 
sisted and  developed  history.  You  are  a  united  people, 
the  most  numerous  of  all  our  nations,  exemplifying 
your  motto,  *'  E  pluribus  unum ;"  and  you  are  preserv- 
ing American,  and  true  American,  ideals. 

If  I  may  be  forgiven  for  saying  so,  the  old  empire 
has  also  progressed.  It  has  thrown  forward  around  the 
circle  of  the  world  young  nations,  and  wherever  it  has 
gone  it  has  granted  to  them  the  principles  of  free  insti- 
tutions and  free  civil  government,  and  has  established 
above  all  the  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
When  I  thought  of  that  ancient  race-course  I  thought 
that  to  you  and  to  us  has  been  committed  the  great 
lamp  of  liberty.  We  may  leap  through  the  decades  in 
pursuit  of  power  and  of  glory,  and  of  everything  that 
can  inspire  a  transcendental  nation,  but  we  shall  never 
attain  true  national  honor  if  we  allow  anything  to  ob- 
scure, much  less  extinguish,  that  vestal  flame.  Your 
mission  is,  as  ours,  to  help  the  w^eak  and  raise  the  fallen ; 
not  only  to  point  men  upward,  but  to  assist  them  to 
reach  the  highest  of  their  possibilities.  I  have  confidence 
that  this  old  world  is  not  going  to  be  ruled  by  physical 
force;  it  is  going  to  be  ruled  by  Justice,  by  mercy,  by 
principle,  and  by  truth.  In  the  bright  future  the  subli- 
mated intelligence  of  man  shall  not  only  see  truth,  but 
shall  abide  by  the  truth. These  things  shall  never  suffer 
defeat. 

Let  us  follow  the  faith  of  your  own  poet,  Whittier: 

C   251    ] 


Brown  University 

'"'' But  life  shall  on  and  upxoard go; 
Tlie  eternal  step  of  progress  beats 
To  that  great  anthem^  calm  and  sloxv^ 
Which  God  repeats. 

'"''Take  heart/  —  the  Waster  builds again^ — 
A  channed  life  old  Goodness  hath; 
The  tares  may  perish^ — but  the  grain 
Is  not  for  death. 

"  God  works  in  all  things;  all  obey 

His  first  propulsion  from  the  night; 
Wake  thou  and  watch. ^ — thexuorld  is  gray 
With  morning  light.'''' 

Dr.  Keen.  The  next  speaker  is  not  on  our  programme. 
It  was  my  intention  to  have  called  him  immediately  after 
the  Governor,  as  was  due  to  the  high  position  he  has 
held,  but  he  begged  that  he  might  be  placed  at  the  end 
of  the  feast,  just  before  the  President  of  the  University, 
and  of  course  I  complied  with  his  wish.  His  name  does 
not  appear  because  the  programme  for  the  dinner  was 
already  printed  before  we  knew  that  we  might  have 
the  high  honor  and  privilege  of  listening  to  him.  When 
I  heard  to-day  that  he  was  to  speak,  immediately  there 
occurred  to  me  the  sentence  by  which  I  would  intro- 
duce him,  or  rather  present  him,  to  you ;  and  the  splen- 
did acclaim  that  welcomed  him  this  morning  in  the  old 
First  Baptist  Meeting-House  gives  warrant  for  what  I 
am  to  say.  It  is  simply  this :  No  man  in  public  life  in  the 
United  States  is  more  honored  and  trusted,  and,  what 
is  more  to  the  heart  of  every  man  and  woman,  no  man 
is  more  sincerely  beloved  than  the  Honorable  William 
H.  Taft,  our  former  President  and  fellow  alumnus. 

The  Honorable  William  H.  Taft  said,  among  other 
things : 

C    252    ] 


The  University  Dinner 

IT  is  a  great  pleasure,  to  take  part  in  honoring  Brown 
University  and  in  celebrating  her  birthday,  her  one 
hundred  and  fiftieth  birthday.  And  you  cannot  take  part 
in  the  celebration  without  contrasting  her  history  with 
that  of  some  of  the  other  universities.  President  Had- 
ley  is  not  here,  so  in  a  poor  \vay  I  may  claim  to  repre- 
sent Yale;  and  I  think  it  is  a  comment  on  the  history  of 
Brown  that  the  President  of  Harvard  and  a  represen- 
tative of  Yale  are  here  to  contribute  to  the  celebration 
and  to  comment  on  the  greatest — one  of  the  greatest 
— qualities  of  Brow^n,  namely,  that  from  the  beginning 
Brown  has  been  non-sectarian.  Harvard  and  Yale  had 
to  make  some  arrangements  by  w^hich  they  ceased  to  be 
sectarian,  and  now  we  also  are  in  the  fold  of  liberal  uni- 
versities whose  professors,  if  they  can  only  live  twenty 
years — and  that  is  what  I  am  struggling  to  do — may 
be  saved  for  the  contemplation  of  a  grateful  country. 
Brown  early  showed  a  liberality  in  her  curriculum.  The 
thing  that  strikes  me  more  than  anything  about  Brown, 
brought  out  by  discussion  in  some  newspapers  as  to 
whether  Brown  is  a  university  or  not,  is  this,  that  the 
greatest  failures  in  history  are  those  efforts  to  blow 
one's  self  up  like  the  frog  until  he  bursts.  This  effort 
to  expand  into  all  sorts  of  activities  so  that  we  may  be 
called  a  university  has  frequently  paralyzed  that  which 
in  America  has  really  made  the  strength  of  our  edu- 
cational college  activity.  As  President  Low^ell  said  at 
Washington,  when  referring  to  the  necessity  of  our  uni- 
versities devoting  more  time  to  undergraduate  work, 
that  is  the  life  sentiment,  the  nucleus  of  everything. 
Now,  Brown  has  devoted  its  attention  all  the  time  to 
that;  and  it  has  been  willing  to  grow  by  having  that 
kind  of  growth  and  by  making  that  part  of  the  univer- 

[   253  ] 


Brown  University 

sity  within  it  strong  and  useful;  and  at  the  same  time 
without  that  ambition  that  sometimes  injures  progress, 
with  a  moderation  that  goes  with  the  modesty  of  Rhode 
Island  and  this  civilization  here  that  holds  unto  what 
is  good,  and  expands  that  gradually,  but  maintains  its 
standard  through  all.  Now  that  is  what  makes  me  re- 
spect and  venerate  Brown.  You  have  not  changed.  You 
began  as  an  institution  of  toleration  and  you  are  such 
to-day.  Harvard  and  Yale  and  all  the  other  colleges 
before  you  were  sectarian.  We  have  gone  on  and  I 
don't  know  but  we  have  passed  you,  perhaps  too  far,  in 
that  regard.  Perhaps  we  have  gone  to  an  extreme.  You 
stand  for  that  steady,  conservative  progress  of  which, 
since  I  have  got  out  of  office,  I  am  in  favor. 

There  is  a  feature  of  this  meeting  that  nobody  else 
has  commented  on,  and  I  hasten  to  be  the  first  to  refer 
to  it.  That  is  that  we  are  honored  by  the  presence  of 
women  at  this  banquet.  I  am  in  favor  of  having  them 
at  every  banquet  always.  Of  course  they  add  to  the 
charm  of  it,  and  of  course  they  add  to  the  smoothness 
with  which  everything  goes  off.  It  is  not  essential  that 
we  should  get  into  a  discussion  as  to  suffrage  because 
they  are  here,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  the  narrowness 
of  dinner  committees  heretofore  has  been  based  on  the 
fear  that  their  company  now  in  the  present  state  of  the 
campaign  would  lead  to  some  controversy  on  that  sub- 
ject. You  have  a  Women's  College  here,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  that  it  improves  the  old  Brown  University.  In  that 
respect  you  have  expanded  somewhat;  you  have  made 
what  other  colleges  have  considered  possibly  a  danger- 
ous experiment.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  you  have  been 
able  to  get  in  the  sisters  and  still  retain  the  conserva- 
tism, the  valuable  conservatism,  of  old  Brown. 

C   254  ] 


The  University  Dinner 

I  congratulate  President  Faunce,  I  congratulate  all 
the  alumni  of  Brown  University,  on  this  great  celebra- 
tion of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  useful  life,  and 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  thank  you  for  the  honor 
of  being  enrolled  among  your  alumni. 

Dr.  Keen.  Before  introducing  the  next  and  the  last 
speaker  I  have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  to  Brown 
four  gifts. 

In  the  first  place,  I  hold  in  my  hand  the  favor- 
ite cane  that  was  carried  by  Morgan  Edwards,  the 
founder,  because  he  was  the  first  proposer,  of  this  Uni- 
versity. It  is  presented  to  Brown  University  by  his 
great-grandson,  Mr.  E.  R.  Siewers,  of  Philadelphia. 
Attached  to  it  is  a  card  with  Morgan  Edwards's  coat- 
of-arms. . 

In  the  second  place,  last  June  my  own  class,  which 
graduated,  as  I  have  said,  almost  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
—  1 859, — started  the  Alumni  Loyalty  Fund  as  the  first 
subscribers  to  the  fund.  The  class  of  1859  has  made 
up  a  fund  of  $1400,  which  we  now  present  to  the  Uni- 
versity. 

Thirdly,  we  have  in  Philadelphia  a  small  alumni  as- 
sociation. After  the  Boston  Association  we  are  the  old- 
est of  all  the  alumni  associations.  We  have  had  more 
enterprise  than  the  New  York,  the  Boston,  or  any  other 
association  in  that  w^e  started  a  number  of  years  ago  to 
raise  in  our  modest  way  a  scholarship  fund.  As  time 
went  on  our  idea  expanded,  till  finally  we  decided  to 
increase  the  amount  and  found  a  Fellowship  Fund,  and 
to  name  this  fellowship  after  Morgan  Edwards.  I  have 
here  a  letter  from  the  treasurer  which  announces  that 
the  fund  is  now  completed,  and  amounts  to  110,026.33. 

C  255  ] 


Brown  University 

Whenever  the  income  amounts  to  one  thousand  dol- 
lars, it  is  to  be  awarded  to  a  graduate  of  the  University 
who  has  taken  a  degree  in  course.  The  recipient  is  to 
spend  a  year  in  research  in  any  part  of  the  world  where 
the  best  advantages  for  the  study  of  the  subject  chosen 
may  exist.  It  is  to  be  given  solely  on  the  basis  of  past 
performance  and  future  promise;  and  it  may  be  ex- 
tended under  certain  conditions  to  two  years.  In  addi- 
tion to  that,  the  very  wise  provision  is  made  that  in  the 
year  1930,  or  afterwards,  if  conditions  change,  any  of 
the  provisions  at  present  governing  the  award  may  be 
changed  by  a  concurrent  vote  of  the  Faculty  and  Board 
of  Fellows,  with  one  proviso — it  shall  always  be  for 
original  research.  This  fund  we  now  present  to  the  Uni- 
versity. 

The  fourth  gift  that  I  wish  to  announce  is  peculiar. 
It  is  a  glacier.  When  my  daughter.  Miss  Dora  Keen, 
went  to  Alaska  this  summer  to  map,  measure,  and  pho- 
tograph the  glaciers  in  College  Fjord,  I  said  to  her, 
''  You  know  that  all  these  glaciers  are  named  for  vari- 
ous colleges.  Harvard,  Yale,  Bryn  Mawr,  and  so  on. 
Now,  remember,  if  you  find  a  stray  glacier  that  no  one 
has  named,  I  want  that  named  for  Brown  University 
in  honor  of  our  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary." 
I  had  a  telegram  from  her  from  the  Pacific  coast  a  few 
days  ago  saying  that  she  had  found  and  named  the 
"  Brown  University  Glacier,"  a  glacier  ten  miles  long 
and  one  mile  wide,  and  adding,  "  My  best  wishes  for 
another  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  service  as  suc- 
cessful as  the  last  go  with  this  announcement  to  the 
University  I  have  been  proud  to  honor." 

Now,  I  cannot,  indeed  I  dare  not,  introduce  to  you 
the  last  speaker.  I  only  present  him  to  you  as  a  fine 

[   ^56  ] 


The  University  Dinner 

example  of  the  famous  toast  of  George  William  Curtis : 
"The  Brown  bred  boys  make  the  best  bred  men."  1 
ask  you  to  rise  and  salute  President  Faunae. 

President  Faunce  said: 

FRIENDS  of  Brown :  Our  honored  toastmaster,like 
the  Magi  of  old,  comes  bearing  gifts.  I  am  happy 
to  accept  this  fellowship  fund,  and  this  beginning  of  the 
loyalty  fund,  which  I  hope  will  be  followed  by  many 
other  gifts  of  the  same  kind  to  that  fund.  I  am  equally 
happy  to  accept  the  big  stick  of  Morgan  Edwards,  and 
to  place  it  beside  the  staff  of  James  Manning,  which  is 
already  in  my  home  and  will  be  there  as  long  as  the 
president's  house  stands.  The  presentation  of  a  glacier 
might  be  described  as  a  cool  proposition,  but  a  univer- 
sity officer  is  accustomed  to  taking  cold  things  and  hot 
things  with  equal  avidity  and  gratitude.  I  do  not  know 
when  I  shall  be  able  to  visit  this  new  Brunonian  prop- 
erty, probably  not  for  some  time.  Without  attempting 
the  icy  summit,  we  may  say  with  Wordsworth, 

"  JFe  have  a  vision  of  our  otvn^ 
Ah  !  ivhif  should  xve  undo  it  7  " 

Yes,  we  have  visions  of  our  own.  This  week,  the  whole 
five  golden  October  days  have  been  days  of  visions  of 
our  own.  We  have  had  a  vision  of  the  whole  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  compressed  into  one  hour  by  the 
masterly  mind  of  Charles  Evans  Hughes.  The  light  of 
the  past  falling  on  the  veiling  mists  of  the  future  has 
given  us  rainbows  in  which  we  see  the  promise  that,  as 
our  seed-time  has  come,  our  harvest  shall  not  fail. 

Now  let  me  say  "Thank  you."  Let  me  thank  the 
very  energetic  and  efficient  committees  that  have  had 

C   257  3 


Brown  University 

charge  of  these  five  days  of  high  festival.  I  hear  busi- 
ness firms  sometimes  lament  academic  inefficiency. 
They  tell  us  we  need  scientific  management.  I  question 
whether  there  is  any  business  firm  in  the  country  that 
could  manage  more  effectively,  or  with  greater  accu- 
racy and  precision,  the  five  days'  enterprise  than  have 
these  academic  dreamers  of  our  college  faculty.  And  we 
thank  them.  We  who  walk  the  deck  of  the  ship  think  at 
the  end  of  the  voyage  of  the  men  who  have  been  down 
in  the  hold  making  the  vessel  go.  Then  we  want  to 
thank  our  guests  who  have  come  from  near  and  far. 
They  do  not  know  what  their  presence  means  to  us,  the 
inspiration  of  seeing  ourselves  in  the  constellation  of 
American  universities  and  colleges.  We  thought  pos- 
sibly you,  our  guests,  might  come  with  some  reluctance 
at  leaving  important  tasks,  or  that  you  might  be  bored 
by  the  celebrations  of  another  family;  but  if  you  felt  re- 
luctance, you  have  cleverly  dissembled, and  if  you  have 
been  pursued  by  regrets,  you  have  happily  concealed 
them.  Your  coming  has  meant  so  much  to  us  and  to  this 
community  and  to  this  state,  that  every  one  of  us  con- 
nected with  the  University  heartily  thanks  you. 

We  know  there  are  others  who  would  be  here.  Just 
as  I  reached  this  hall  to-night  there  came  a  cablegram 
dated  London,  October  15,1914:  "Heartiest  congratu- 
lations. Bryce.*' A  message  from  James  Bryce  is  always 
an  inspiration  in  every  American  undertaking. 

I  am  sure  that  we  have  all  felt  this  week  what  it 
means  to  be  in  the  goodly  fellowship  of  the  academic 
world.  I  have  known  many  associations  of  many  kinds, 
educational,  religious,  philanthropic,  but  I  have  never 
known  any  happier  friendship,  any  more  genuine  fel- 
lowship, anywhere  in  the  world  than  I  have  found  in 

I  258  ;] 


The  University  Dinner 

academic  life.  It  is  good  to  be  even  a  college  president, 
when  surrounded  by  a  Faculty  so  loyal  and  considerate 
and  self-sacrificing  as  the  Faculty  of  Brown  University 
is  and  always  has  been. 

How  much  we  owe  also  to  the  members  of  the  Cor- 
poration working  beside  the  Faculty!  This  assembly 
ought  to  realize,  if  it  does  not,  that  one  of  the  greatest 
assets  of  Brown  University  is  the  toastmaster  of  this 
evening,  Dr.  William  W.  Keen.  I  don't  know  how  many 
years  he  has  been  on  the  Corporation, — the  memory 
of  man  runneth  not  to  the  contrary;  but  he  is  more 
versatile  and  exuberant  now  than  ever  in  his  life.  As  I 
was  telling  a  friend  the  other  evening,  he  writes  me  at 
least  once  a  week,  and  sometimes  every  day,  and  says, 
"Why  don't  you  do  this  and  that;  other  universities 
are  doing  it."  He  prods  me  when  I  am  sleeping,  and 
delights  me  when  I  wake.  He  is  both  gadfly  and  night- 
ingale. 

I  wish  I  could  speak  of  others.  I  wish  I  could  speak 
fittingly  of  Colonel  Robert  H.  I.  Goddard.  Our  chill 
New  England  temper  forbids  us  to  say  the  things  we 
most  deeply  feel;  they  go  unsaid  forever;  but  there  are 
men,  many  of  them,  some  into  whose  faces  I  am  look- 
ing, who  have  given  of  their  life-blood  for  the  ideals 
for  w^hich  the  University  stands;  and  to  be  associated 
with  such  men,  to  walk  with  them  up  the  hill  arm  in 
arm,  and  heart  touching  heart,  is  a  privilege  that  makes 
my  life  worth  living. 

I  am  thinking  of  one  remark  made  to  me  that  has 
been  of  great  help.  It  is  the  remark  of  President  Angell, 
detained  from  us  this  week  by  serious  illness  in  his 
family — one  of  the  greatest  disappointments  to  him,  as 
it  is  to  us  all.  He  came  into  my  office  when  I  first  came 

C  ^59  ] 


Brown  University 

here,  and  I  said,  "Now  I  am  only  a  novice,  haven't 
you  some  advice  to  give  me  ? "  And  he  replied,  **  Every 
one  has  got  to  make  his  own  way.  I  might,  however, 
say  one  thing :  a  college  president  has  got  to  have  an- 
tennae." We  all  realize  how  richly  Dr.  Angell  has  been 
endowed  with  that  ability  to  perceive  movements  and 
tendencies  to  which  others  may  be  blind. 

It  is  a  goodly  fellowship,  it  is  a  delightful  life  to  me. 
The  only  tragic  thing  is  that  sometimes  it  looks  as  if 
we  might  be  remembered  for  the  things  we  care  least 
about.  I  am  sure  that  every  college  officer  knows  that 
the  greatest  fact  connected  with  the  work  he  is  doing 
is  never  the  number  of  dollars  in  the  treasury  or  the 
number  of  students  on  the  roster.  What  do  we  care  for 
money  except  as  a  means  to  an  end,  money  devoted 
as  is  this  Philadelphia  fellowship,  by  which  centuries 
from  now  may  be  created  scholars  of  high  power  of 
research.'*  What  do  we  care  for  numbers  except  as 
they  represent  intellectual  fellowship,  intellectual  in- 
terests, high  spiritual  ideals.''  So  we  are  willing, if  need 
be,  to  sacrifice  numbers  to  standards:  the  size  of  the 
University  to  the  value  of  its  curriculum.  Yet,  as  I  was 
coming  in  this  evening,  I  certainly  was  not  displeased  to 
hear  from  our  registrar  that,  for  the  first  time,  this  year 
our  numbers  pass  the  one  thousand  mark,  and  that  we 
have  one  thousand  and  eleven  students  enrolled  in  the 
University. 

What  will  hold  a  college  true  to  its  original  im- 
pulse ^  How  shall  we  keep  it  loyal  to  the  tradition  of 
the  fathers,  to  the  finest  things  that  went  into  its  found- 
ing ?  Not  by  statutes  and  regulations ;  not  by  an  iron- 
bound  creed,  as  the  founders  of  Brown  had  discovered 
before  they  came  together;  not  by  any  charter,  how- 

[    260    ] 


The  University  Dinner 

ever  minute  and  specific  its  regulations  may  be.  I  be- 
lieve that  what  we  need  above  all  is  the  reinterpreta- 
tion  of  the  past  to  the  present.  We  need  on  anniversary 
days  to  come  back  and  establish  not  merely  what  were 
the  laws  in  the  book,  but  what  was  the  purpose  behind 
each  law.  What  was  the  ideal  that  animated  those  men  ? 
What  was  the  vision  they  saw.^^  What  was  the  concep- 
tion they  had  of  why  they  were  in  the  world,  and  why 
this  nation  is  here.f*  If  we  achieve  this  reinterpretation 
to  each  generation, — and  the  college  generation  is  only 
four  years  in  length, — if  we  can  every  four  years  at 
least  reinterpret  to  the  alumni  and  the  students  and  the 
friends  why  we  were  originally,  how  we  have  become 
what  w^e  are,  what  we  are  striving  for,  then  there  is 
continuity  of  spiritual  life,  then  the  tradition  is  handed 
on  from  father  to  son,  and  then  the  years  behind  us 
become  the  fruitful  soil  out  of  which  grows  all  that  is 
good. 

So  I  feel  to-night  like  congratulating  every  teacher 
in  the  University,  every  officer,  every  friend  who  by  his 
presence  to-day  speaks  encouragement  and  God-speed. 
Many  things  divide  us  in  the  modern  world,  things 
of  war  and  things  of  peace,  but  in  education  we  come 
together.  The  man  who  doesn't  believe  in  that  has  no 
place  in  civilized  society,  and  the  man  who  does  believe 
in  that  ought  to  find  some  way  of  linking  his  life  with 
all  others  who  hold  the  same  faith.  So  to-night  we  offer 
our  homage  to  the  men  that  have  lived  before  us,  and 
in  their  spirit  and  purpose  we  face  the  future. 

I  often  think  of  the  words  of  Matthew  Arnold  in 
the  shadow  of  Rugby  Chapel,  when,  as  the  evening 
was  falling,  he  invoked  the  teachers  of  the  past,  and 
said  that  they  recall  the  stragglers,  reinspire  the  brave, 

C  261  ;] 


Brown  University- 
strengthen  the  wavering  lines,  and  continue  our  march 
"on,  on  to  the  bound  of  the  waste,  on  to  the  city  of 
God."  May  that  be  the  happy  experience  of  Brown 
University  and  of  all  who  stand  with  it! 

Dr.  Keen.  When  you  came  to  Brown  University  on 
this  occasion  you  were  greeted  with  the  first  two  words 
that  are  inscribed  over  one  of  the  gates  of  Rothenburg, 
that  quaint,  picturesque,  red  German  city:  "Pax  En- 
trantibus."  It  is  now  my  pleasure  also  to  extend  to  you 
the  benediction  of  the  concluding  words  of  the  same 
inscription:  "Salus  Exeuntibus." 

Our  festival  and  our  feast  are  now  a  memory.  May 
that  memory  long  endure  as  an  unalloyed  joy ! 


c  262  n 


Ill 

Congratulatory  Addresses  from 
Institutions  of  Learning 


Congratulatory  Addresses 

from  Institutions  of  Learning 

[  UNIVERSITY  OF  PRAGUE  ] 

(SeaO 

Prag,  am  28.  Oktober  1914 

An  den  Rat  der  Brown-Universitat  in  Providence,  Rhode  Is- 
land. 

DER  akademische  Senat  der  deutschen  Karl-Ferdinands- 
Uni  versitat  in  Prag  hatte  den  Beschluss  gefasst,  Ihre  Uni- 
versitat  anlasslich  der  Feier  des  150.  Griindungs-Jubilaums 
amFesttagetelegraphischzu  begliickwiinschen.  Leiderkonnte 
dieser  Beschluss  infolge  der  Storung,  welche  die  telegraphische 
\^erbindung  durch  die  gegenwartige  Kriegslage  erfahren  hat, 
nicht  ausgefiihrt  werden. 

Ich  bitte  daher  die  Verzogerung  unserer  Gliickwiinsche 
durch  die  besonderen  un^'orhergesehenen  Verhaltnisse  ent- 
schuldigen  zu  wollen  iind  versichert  zu  sein,  dass  auch  diese 
schlichte  Gratulation  die  besten  Wiinsche  fiir  ein  weiteres 
Gedeihen  Ihrer  Universitat  zum  Wohle  der  Wissenschaft  in 
sich  schliesst. 

Fiir  den  akademischen  Senat  der  deutschen  Karl-Ferdi- 

nands-Universitat  in  Prag. 

Der  Rektor: 

SWOBODA 


I  265  ] 


Brown  University 


[    UNIVERSITY  OF  FREIBURG  ] 

Prorektor  iind  Senat  der  Albert  Ludwigs-Universitat  entbieten 
dem  President  und  der  Corporation  der  Brown  Universitat  zur 
Feier  Ihres  hundertfiinfzigjahrigen  Bestehens  Gliickwunsch 
und  Gruss. 

DIE  Einladung  zur  Jubelfeier  Ihrer  Universitat  haben  wir 
mitder  lebhaftesten  Teilnahme  entgegengenommen.  Mit 
berechtigtem  Stolze  blicken  Sie  auf  die  EntM'icklung  Ihrer 
Hochschule,  die,  eine  der  altesten  Ihres  Landes,  aus  kleinen, 
aber  verheissungsvollen  Anfangen  zu  ihrer  jetzigen  Bliite  em- 
porgewachsen  und  so  eng  verbunden  ist  mit  der  Geschichte 
von  Providence  und  Rhode  Island  wie  der  Baptistenkirche  in 
Amerika. 

Stets  hat  Ihre  Hochschule  einen  hohen  Rang  unter  denen 
amerikanischer  Zunge  eingenommen,  ausgezeichnet  durch 
treffliche  Lehrer,  verherrlicht  durch  Zoglinge,  die  im  Reiche 
des  Geistes  oder  in  einer  praktischen  Tatigkeit  sich  und  der 
Universitat,  der  sie  angehorten,  Ruhm  gewannen.  Die  Namen 
der  grossen  Padagogen,  die  aus  Ihrer  Universitat  hervorge- 
gangen  sind,  eines  Wilbur  Fisk  und  eines  Horace  Mann,  sind 
auch  bei  uns  wohlbekannt. 

Mit  warmer  Anteilnahme  und  aufrichtiger  Hochschatzung 
blicken  wir  auf  die  150  jahrigen  Verdienste  Ihrer  Hochschule 
um  Wissenschaft,  Bildung  und  Leben  und  bringen  unsere 
herzlichen  Wiinsche  fiir  eine  weitere  gedeihliche  Entwick- 
lung  in  der  Zukunft  dar. 

Alfred  Schultze 


Freiburg-  i.  Br.^  den  25.  September  1914 

C   266  ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  TUBINGEN  ] 

Untversitdt  'Iilbing'en^  Konigl.  Rcktoramt. 
Tubingen^  den  9.  Mai  1914 

FUR  die  freundliche  Einladung  zur  150  jahrigen  Griind- 
ungsfeier  Ihrer  Universitat  spreche  ich  den  Dank  un- 
seres  Senats  aus  und  iibermitde  unsere  besten  Gliickwiinsche 
zu  dem  Jubilaum. 

Franz 


An  den  Herm  Prasidenten  der  Brown  University  in  Providence,  Rhode 
Island. 


C   267   ] 


Brown  University 

[  UNIVERSITY  OF  HALLE-WITTENBERG  ] 

Halle  {S'aale')^  den  5.  Oktoher  1914 

Der  Rektor  der  vereinigten  Friedrichs-Universitat  Halle-Wit- 
tenberg. 

An  den  Herrn  Prasidenten  der  Brown  University,  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island. 

DER  Brown  University  spreche  ich  zu  ihrer  Jubelfeier 
namens  der  vereinigten   Friedrichs-Universitat  Halle- 
Wittenberg  die  warmsten  Gliickwiinsche  aus. 

Mit  Stolz  kann  die  Brown  University  auf  eine  lange  und 
ruhmvolle  Entwicklung  zurilckblicken,  in  der  sie  durch  Lehre 
und  Forschung  an  der  Forderung  und  Verbreitung  der  Wis- 
senschaft  mitgewirkt  hat. 

Wir  hegen  den  aufrichtigen  Wunsch,  dass  die  Brown  Uni- 
versity auch  in  Zukunft  bliihen  und  gedeihen  werde  zum 
Heile  der  Kultur  und  Gesittung,  und  wir  verbinden  damit 
die  sichere  HofFnung,  dass  das  Band,  das  unsere  Universitat 
mit  der  jiingeren  Schwester  verbindet,  stets  enger  und  inniger 
werde. 

GUTZMER 


c  268 : 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  STRASSBURG  ] 

Kaiser  Wilhelms-Universitdt 
Strassbwg-  i.  E.,  den  1.  Oktober  1914 

ZUM  150-jahrigen  Jubilaumlhrer  Hochschule  beehre  ich 
mich  als  derzeitiger  Rektor  der  Kaiser  Wilhelms-Uni- 
versitat  Strassburg  Ihnen  die  aufrichtigsten  Gliickwiinsche 
zu  iibermitteln.  Moge  Ihre  Universitat  auch  fernerhin  bliihen 
und  gedeihen,  zum  Wohle  der  Vereinigten  Staaten,  mit  denen 
uns  das  Gefiihl  gegenseitiger  Sympadiie  verbindet! 

Der  Rektor  der  Universitat 

H.  Chiari 


An  die  Brown-University,  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  Vereinigte  Staaten 
von  Amerika. 


[    269    ] 


Brown  University 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURGH  ] 

Universitati  Brunensi  Universitas  Edinburgensis  S.P.D. 

EA  nostrae  Universitatis  aetas  est,  viri  doctissimi  et  ami- 
cissimi,  ut  iuniorem  vestram  senior  salutet,  non  tamen, 
ut  speramus,  senescens ;  non  enim  Universitatum  sicut  singu- 
lorum  hominum  aetates  sunt  et  fieri  potest  ut  perpetua  fru- 
antur  iuventute :  id  quod  vestrae  certe  Universitati  adhuc  con- 
tigisse  gaudemus  utque  in  futurum  contingat  optamus,  licet  eo 
annis  provecta  sit  ut  inter  eximias  istas  Angliae  Novae  Uni- 
versitates  uni  Harvardensi  cedere  earn  aetate  acceperimus. 

Noverant  veteres  Rhodum  alteram  insulam,  a  Sole  dilec- 
tam,  philosophiae  et  eloquentiae  cultricem,  amicitia  et  fide  erga 
populum  Romanum  insignem.  Haud  illi  insulae,  unde  nomen 
traxit,  dissimilis  est  civitas  vestra,  quae  et  ipsa  philosophiam, 
eloquentiam,  litteras  Graecas  Latinasque  studiose  coluit  (quid 
enim?  nonne  etiam  philosopho  praeclaro,  episcopo  nostrati, 
hospitium  praebuit? ),  lucem  amavit  veritatis  idque  constanter 
egit  ut  nullis  impedirentur  vinculis  qui  veritatem  consectaren- 
tur,  ingruente  autem  belli  civilis  tempestate  strenuam  se  prae- 
stitit  et  alumnos  fortissimos  in  aciem  emisit.  Univ  ersitas  vestra 
quas  rerum  vicissitudines  experta  sit,  satis  nobis  notum  est: 
quomodo.  Collegium  Insulae  Rhodiae  ab  initio  nuncupatum, 
mox  Providentiam  in  urbem  maiorem  et  crescentem  et  merca- 
turis  hodie  pollentem  translatum  sit,  non  tamen  ut  e  tranquil- 
litate  academica  quicquam  amiserit  aut  in  aliena  se  societate 
collocatam  senserit:  scimus  ut  a  donatore  munificentissimo 
locupletata  nomen  olim  mutaverit  Universitasque  Brunensis 
appellata  sit  utque  hoc  iampridem  nomine  celebrata  simul  stu- 
diis  illis  veritatem  indagantium  floruerit,  simul  discipulorum 
pietate  et  in  certaminibus  omnimodis  robore  et  pernicitate  in- 
notuerit,  librorum  autem,  necessariae  studiosorum  supellec- 
tilis,  tantam  sibi  copiam  comparaverit  quantam  paucae  ex 
Universitatibus  Americanis  consecutae  sunt. 

C  270  ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 

His  omnibus  rebus  ut  diu  vigeat  Universitas  vestra  maio- 
resque  adeo  opes  alumnosque  plures  sibi  adsciscat,  in  votis  esse 
nobis  valdeque  optari  scitote:  quod  ut  certius  sciatis,  legatum 
eum  misimus  quern  habere  peridoneum  visi  sumus,  eum  sci- 
licet qui,  cum  et  apud  vos  aliquot  annos  docuerit  et  nunc  apud 
nos  doceat,  inter  utrosque  autem  et  libenter,  credimus,  et  cum 
gratia  et  auctoritate  versatus  sit,  similitudinem  aliquam  dua- 
rum  inter  se  Universitatium  et  animorum  cognationem  signi- 
ficare  videatur.  Valete  et  quam  maxime  prosperis  rebus  uti- 
mini,  feriasque  has  natales  annorum  centum  et  quinquaginta 
feliciter  celebratote. 

WiLHELMUs  Turner 
,        .  Praeses 

^^'""^^  L.J.Grant 

6'ecretarius 


Dabamus  Edinburgi^  3fense  Julio^  Anno  Domini  Nostri  MCMXIV 


I    271     ] 


Brown  University 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE  ] 

Universitati  Brunianae  S.P.D.  Universitas  Cantabrigiensis. 

REM  nobis  pergratam  fecistis,  viri  nobis  et  generis  et  lin- 
.  guae  et  litterarum  et  studiorum  communium  vinculis 
coniuncti,  quod,  annos  centum  et  quinquaginta  Universitatis 
vestrae  ab  origine  inter  loci  et  nominis  vicissitudines  ad  finem 
felicem  perductos  celebraturi,  Universitatem  nostram  ad  sacra 
vestra  saecularia  vocare  voluistis.  Non  sine  gaudio  recorda- 
mur  ex  alumnis  nostris  unum,  libertatis  vindicem  ilium  acer- 
rimum,  Rogerum  Williams,  ipsam  sedem  olim  condidisse,  ubi 
Universitas  vestra,  iam  per  annos  centum  quadraginta  quat- 
tuor  feliciter  collocata  est.  Recordamur  Universitatem  vestram 
per  annos  centum  et  decem  a  benefactore  quodam  nomen  no- 
vum esse  mutuatam.  Recordamur,  linguae  Graecae  ex  profes- 
soribus  vestris,  unum  inter  Scholae  vestrae  Atheniensis  con- 
ditores  olim  exstitisse,  alterum  et  Athenarum  et  Mycenarum 
inter  monumenta,  et  maris  Aegaei  inter  insulas,  doctrinae  fruc- 
tus  iucundos  percepisse.  Recordamur  denique  bibliothecam 
vestram  novam  nomen  posteris  tradituram  esse  alumni  vestri 
litterarum  laude  illustris,  loannis  Hay,  reipublicae  vestrae 
maximae  per  tempus  nimium  breve  ad  Britanniam  legati. 

Ergo,  Universitatis  vestrae  in  honorem,  legatos  maxime 
idoneos  duos  ad  vos  libenter  mittimus,  unum  in  theologia, 
alterum  in  scientiis  doctorem,  qui  nostrum  omnium  nomine 
inter  ferias  vestras  saeculares  gaudii  vestri  et  testes  et  participes 
sunt  interfuturi.  Valete. 

iSeaO 


Datum  Cantabrigiae,  Idibus  Iidiis,  A.S.  MCMXIV 

I    272    ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  GRAZ   ] 

Rektorat  der  k.k.  Karl-Fran%enfi-Universitdt 
Graz^  den  15.  September  1914 

An  den  Herrn  Prtisidenten  iind  den  Lehrkorper  der  Brown- 
Universitiit,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 

HOCHGEEHRTE  Herren  Kollegen !  In  sturmbewegter 
Zeit  begehen  Sie  die  Feier  des  hundertfiinfzigjahrigen 
Bestandes  Ihrer  ausgezeichneten  Hochschule. 

Unser  Vaterland,  dessen  friedlichster  Herrscher  zur  Ab- 
wehr  der  auf  die  Vernichtung  der  Monarchie  abzielenden, 
heimtiickischen  und  unmenschlichen  Feinde  gezwungen  wor- 
den  ist,  preist  mit  dem  Deutschen  Kaiser,  unserem  Bundesge- 
nossen,  den  erhabenen  Prasidenten  der  Vereinigten  Staaten  als 
den  her^'orragendsten  Vertreter  der  Grundsatze  der ' '  Mensch- 
lichkeit." 

In  der  Verteidigung  und  bei  dem  Ausbau  dieser  Grund- 
satze steht  unsere  Universitat  mit  der  Ihrigen  zusammen. 
Alle  Wissenschaft,  die  Sie  wie  wir  pflegen,  gipfelt  in  dem  Be- 
streben,  das  hochste  Menschliche  durch  Erkenntnis  zu  for- 
dern. 

So  empfangen  Sie  unsern  heissen  Gliickwunsch,  dass  Ihre 
Hochschule  wie  bisher  so  in  aller  Zukunft  der  Forschung  eine 
Leuchte  auf  dem  Wege  zur  Wahrheit  und  Humanitat  sein 
moge ! 

Rektorat  der  k.k.  Karl-Franzens-Universitat. 

Der  Rektor: 
Seuffert 


C   273   H 


Brown  University 


[   UNIVERSITY  OF  OVIEDO  ] 

Universidad  de  Oviedo 

DADA  ciienta  al  Claustro  de  mi  presidencia,  de  la  hon- 
rosa  invitacion  de  V.  S.  requiriendo  la  presentacion  de 
un  Delegado  de  esta  Universidad  para  estar  presente  en  las 
solemnidades  dispuestas  con  motivo  de  la  celebracion  del  150 
aniversario  de  la  fundacion  de  esa  ilustre  Escuela,  tengo  el 
honor  de  manifestarle  que,  no  siendo  posible  enviar  un  Dele- 
gado a  la  solemnidad  referida  el  Rectorado  y  Claustro  de  la 
Universidad  de  Oviedo  saludan  cordial  y  atentamente  a  V.  S. 
como  Presidente  de  la  Universidad  de  Brown  y  a  su  ilustre 
Corporacion,  asociandose  a  las  fiestas  que  se  van  a  verificar  en 
conmemoracion  del  150  aniversario  de  su  creacion,  durante 
la  semana  que  comienza  el  1 1  de  Octubre  del  presente  afio, 
haciendo  votos  por  la  brillante  continuacion  de  su  historia  cul- 
tural y  academica. 

Al  propio  tiempo  reciban  V.  S.  y  la  mencionada  corpora- 
cion universitaria  con  la  mas  sincera  felicitacion  y  gratitud  de 
la  de  Oviedo,  el  testimonio  de  nuestra  amistad  y  admiracion. 

Dios  guarde  a  V.  S.  muchos  ailos. 

El  Rector^ 
A.  Sela 

Oviedo  13  de  Junio  de  1914 


Al  iliistre  Sr.  Presidente  y  Corporacion  de  la  Universidad  de  Bro-wn. 


I   274  J 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  GRONINGEN  ] 

Universitati  Brunensi  S.P.D.  Senatus  Universitatis  Gronin- 

ganae. 

Q.B.F.F.F.Q.S. 

UNIVERSITATI  Brunensi,  postqiiam  per  centum  quin- 
quaginta  annos  magistrorum  eruditione  atque  arte 
docendi  discipulorumque  industria  et  amore  discendi  floruit 
viguitque,  mox  diem  natalem  luculentum  et  felicem  cele- 
branti,  tot  viros  litteris  atque  artibus  claros  alumnos  suos  fu- 
isse  summo  iure  glorianti  Senatus  Academiae  Groninganae 
tota  mente  gratulatur  speratque  banc  Universitatis  Brunensis 
gloriam  D.O.M.  volente  propriam  perpetuamque  fore. 

Nos,  sollemni  Senatus  Academiae  Groninganae  decreto  ob- 
temperantes,  banc  gratulationem  votaque  sincera  vobis  misi- 
mus. 

J.  VAN  WaGENINGEN 

,  Senatus  Univ.  Gron.  Actuarius 

h,.  U.   WiERSMA 

Senatus  Univ.  Gron.  Rector 


Datum  Groningae.,  a.d.  XI.  Kal.  Oct.  MCMXIV 


C   275  ] 


Brown  University 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  ] 

Cancellarius   Praeses    Senatus    Universitatis  Torontonensis. 
Cancellario  Praesidi  Senatui  Universitatis  Brunensis  S.P.D. 

GRATULAMUR  vobis,  viri  insignissimi,  vos  ferias  sae- 
culares  celebrare,  et  annum  iam  ab  Universitate  condita 
centesimum  quinquagesimum  agere.  Nee  enim  nos  fugit 
Academiam  vestram  per  multos  an  nos  examen  quoddam 
alumnorum  emisisse  qui  in  litteris,  in  scientia,  in  omni  genere 
doctrinae  se  et  Almam  Matrem  summa  laude  affecerint. 

Gratias  vobis  agimus  quod  nos  vestris  feriis  adesse  invi- 
tastis.  Amicitiam  benevolentiamque  vestram  magni  facimus 
hoc  praesertim  tempore  quo  ci vitas,  olim  carissima,  in  armis 
contra  Imperium  Britannicum  (cuius  nos  pars  parva  sumus) 
tanta  ira  odioque  sunt  ut  victis  finis  adesse  videntur.  Qua  in 
re  non  mirandum  est  si  ira  indignationeque  ipsi  moveamini 
contra  homines  qui  bellum  sanctitate  foederum  violata  ultro 
inferant  et  bellum  immanitate  inhumanitateque  gerant  paene 
incredibili. 

Gratulationem  nostram  ut  ad  vos  afferat,  virum  insignis- 
simum,  Robertum  Alexandrum  Falconer,  LL.D.,  G.M.G., 
praesidem  nostrum,  delegavimus,  qui  laetus  laetitiae  vestrae 
inter  sit. 

Jacobus  Brebner 

Registrarius 
^^'""^^  G.  R.  Meredith 

Cancellarius 


Datum  ex  Aede  Academica^  Kal.  Octoh.^  MDCJIXIV 


c  276  n 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  ZURICH  ] 

Zurich,  den  20.  Mai  1914 

Das  Rektorat  der  Universitat  Zurich  an  Rektor  &  Senat  der 
Brown  University,  Rhode  Island, 

SIE  waren  so  liebenswiirdig  unserer  Universitat  eine  Ein- 
ladung  zu  senden  zu  der  ehrenvollen  150  jahrigen  Feier 
Ihrer  Hochschule. 

Wir  begliickwiinschen  Sie  dazu,  auf  eine  so  lange  Zeit 
segensreichen  Wirkens  und  machtiger  Culturarbeit  zuriick- 
bUcken  zu  konnen.  Sie  haben  in  dieser  ruhmvollen  Vergangen- 
heit  die  besten  Garantien  fiir  eine  kraftige  Weiterentwickhmg 
in  der  Zukunft. 

Zu  unserem  grossen  Bedauern  ist  es  dem  Senat  der  Uni- 
versitat Zurich  nicht  moghch  einen  Vertreter  zu  Ihren  Fest- 
lichkeiten  abzuordnen. 

Wir  bitten  Sie  deshalb  auf  diesem  Wege  unsere  herzlich- 
sten  Gluckwiinsche  zu  dem  wichtigen  Ereignis,  welches  Sie 
feiern  werden,  entgegen  nehmen  zu  wollen. 

Mit  collegialem  Grusse 
Rektor  &  Senat  der  Universitat  Zurich 

M.  Cloetta 

Rektor 


I  277  ] 


Brown  University 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  BRUSSELS  ] 

Universite  libre  de  Bruxelles^  Secretariat 
14,  rue  des  Sols^  Bruxelles^  le  6  Avr'il  1914 

A  Monsieur  le  President  du  conseil  de  I'Universitede  Brown 
a  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  U,  S.  A. 

MONSIEUR  le  President.  L' Universite  libre  a  bien  regu 
I'invitation  que  vous  avez  eu  I'amabilite  de  lui  adres- 
ser  a  I'occasion  de  la  celebration  du  cent-cinquantieme  anni- 
versaire  de  votre  Universite. 

II  nous  sera  impossible  de  nous  y  faire  representer ;  mais 
nous  vous  adressons  tous  nos  voeux  de  prosperite  et  esperons 
que  I'Universite,  que  vous  dirigez  avec  honneur  et  talent  dans 
les  voies  scientifiques,continuera  longtemps  encore  sa  carriere 
de  paix  et  de  serenite. 

Veuillez  agreer,  Monsieur  le  President,  I'assurance  de  ma 

consideration  la  plus  distinguee. 

Le  Secretaire  de  /'  Universite 

A.  Lavachery 


c  278  n 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  LOU  VAIN    ] 

Universite  catholique  de  Loiivain 
Louvain^  le  24  Ma'i  1914 

A  Monsieur  le  President  et  a  Messieurs  les  Membres  de  la 
Corporation  de  Brown  University. 

MESSIEURS.  Le  Conseil  rectoral  de  I'Universite  de 
Lou  vain  m'a  charge  de  vous  remercier  vivement  de 
votre  aimable  invitation  a  la  celebration  du  Cent  cinquantieme 
Anniversaire  de  la  Fondation  de  votre  Universite. 

II  nous  eiit  ete  tres  agreable  d'envoyer  un  delegue  a  ces  Fetes 
Jubilaires  ;  nous  en  sommes  malheureusement  empeches  par  le 
devoir  qui,  a  I'epoque  fixee,  retiennent  nos  professeurs,  obli- 
ges de  faire  leurs  cours  et  de  proceder  aux  examens. 

II  ne  nous  reste  done  qu'a  exprimer  par  ecrit  les  voeux  sin- 
ceres  que  nous  formons  pour  la  prosperite  croissante  de  votre 
Universite,  sous  la  direction  des  hommes  eminents  places  a  sa 
tete. 

Veuillez  agreer.  Messieurs,  I'assurance  de  nos  sentiments 
de  haute  consideration. 

Le  Secretaire 

J.  VAN  BlERVLIET 


C   279  ] 


Brown  University 

[  UNIVERSITY  OF  MANCHESTER  ] 

To  the  President  and  Senate  of  the  Brown  University,  Provi- 
dence, R.  I. 

ON  the  occasion  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anni- 
versary of  the  foundation  of  the  Brown  University,  we 
desire  in  the  name  of  the  University  of  Manchester  to  offer  you, 
through  our  delegate  and  former  student.  Professor  John  W. 
CunHffe,  of  Columbia,  our  cordial  congratulations.  Though 
the  history  of  our  own  University  is  brief  in  comparison  with 
yours,  she  may  venture  to  claim  academic  sisterhood  as  hav- 
ing her  seat,  likewise,  in  a  great  manufacturing  city,  and 
owing  a  deep  debt  to  the  endowments  of  its  merchant  princes. 
During  the  four  generations  of  its  existence,  your  University 
has  added  to  its  heritage  of  Colonial  memories  an  elaborate 
modern  equipment.  Founded  in  one  of  the  smallest  States 
of  the  Union,  it  has  taken  its  full  share  in  the  achievements 
which  have  made  New  England  at  large  independent  of  terri- 
torial tests  of  distinction.  Its  history,  almost  from  the  first,  has 
been  closely  bound  up  with  that  of  the  family  whose  name  it 
bears.  Each  of  those  four  generations  has  seen  this  connexion 
continued  and  extended ;  and  America  has  given  to  Europe 
an  example  of  the  handing  on  of  a  great  tradition  of  benefi- 
cence, which  is  one  of  the  truest  marks  of  aristocracy.  In  the 
Library  created  by  John  Carter  Brown,  more  particularly,  the 
University  has  become  possessed  of  a  treasure  beyond  valua- 
tion, which  could  hardly  elsewhere  have  found  a  more  fitting 
home.  No  student  of  American  origins,  visiting,  as  every  seri- 
ous investigator  of  them  must,  this  unique  collection,  will  re- 
gret that  he  must  seek  it  in  the  old  Colonial  city,  not  many 
steps  from  the  spot  where  the  apostle  of  religious  liberty  landed 
to  the  cry  of  "What  cheer?  "  May  the  future  of  the  Brown 
University  continue  to  fulfil  the  happy  augury  of  its  founda- 
tion in  the  "City  of  Hope." 

F.  E.  Weiss 
Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Universitt/  of  Jfanchester 

C  280  ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  KOLOZSVAR   ] 

IN  the  name  of  Kolozsvar  Francis  Joseph  University  the 
Rector  expresses  hearty  appreciation  of  your  invitation  to 
the  celebration  of  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  Anniversary  of 
the  founding  of  your  University.  We  regret  that  on  account 
of  the  great  distance  and  the  Academic  work,  our  University 
will  not  be  able  to  send  a  deputy,  but  we  send  our  hearty  con- 
gratulation for  the  noble  work  3'OU  have  accomplished  during 
the  long  run  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

We  wish  you  a  prosperous  progress  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind. 

Yours  truly: 
(Seal)  Dr.  B.  Kenyeres 

Rector  Kolozsvar  Francis  Joseph  University 


Kolozsvar  (^Hungary)  ^  ^^'^y  6.  1914. 


To  Committee  on  the  Academic  Celebration  of  Brown  University,  Provi- 
dence, Rhode  Island,  U.S.A. 


C  281  ] 


Brown  University 


[   UxNTIVERSITV  OF  WALES  ] 

Universitati  Browneanae  S.  P.  D.  Universitas  Cambrensis. 

GRATIAS  vobis,  viri  doctissimi,  maximas  agimus  qui 
nos  de  ludis  vestris  saecularibus  certiores  feceritis;  lae- 
tissime  etiam  libentissimeque  gratulamur  quod  Academia  ves- 
tra  abhinc  centum  quinquaginta  annos  felicissimis  auspiciis 
condita  ab  exiguis  sane  initiis  eo  crevit  ut  hodie  non  solum 
inter  vetustissimas  sed  inter  clarissimas  quoque  Americae  uni- 
versitates  numeretur.  Quot  enim  quamque  amoenis  in  sedibus 
trans  aequor  Atlanticum  litterarum  doctrina  naturaeque  sci- 
entia  colantur,  nos  quidem  non  sine  magna  admiratione,  ne 
dicaminvidia,  solemus  audire.  At  siquis  vos  antiquam  exqui- 
rere  matrem  iubeat,  ipsi  confiteamini  universitatem  vestram 
a  Cambria  nostra  primam,  ut  ita  dicam,  originem  duxisse. 
Quamquam  enim  Collegio  Rhodio  iam  condito  nomen  Nicolai 
Brown  propter  insignem  eius  munificentiam  optimo  iure  in- 
ditum  est,  inter  conditores  tamen  primos  Morganus  Edwards, 
vir  Cambrensis,  clarus  semper  et  venerabilis  habebitur.  Qui 
alacri  illo  popularium  suorum  ingenio  praeditus  id  semper  con- 
siliis,  orationibus,  itineribus  indefessus  agebat  ut  in  adules- 
centibus  informandis  res  olim  dissociabiles,  religio  et  libertas, 
artissimo  inter  sese  foedere  iungerentur.  Quid  igitur  Univer- 
sitati Browneanae  potius  precemur  quam  ut  servetur  qualis 
ab  incepto  processerit  et  sibi  constet? 

Has  litteras  legato  nostro,  equiti  ornatissimo,  Henrico  Ru- 
dolpho  Reichel,  Collegii  Banchorensis  Praefecto,  in  Universi- 
tate  Cambrensi  iam  quater  Vice-Cancellarii  munere  functo, 
ad  vos  deferendas  dabamus. 

T.  F.  Roberts 

Vice-  Cancellarius 

J.  Mortimer  Angus 

Registrarius 


[    282    ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  NEUCHATEL   ] 

Universite  de  Neuchdtel^  Cabinet  du  Recteur 
Neuchatel^  k  \cr  juilkt  1914 

Au  Recteur  et  au  Senat  de  la  Brown  University,  Providence 
(Rhode  Island). 

MONSIEUR  le  Recteur  et  Messieurs.  Nous  avonsl'hon- 
neur  de  vous  accuser  reception  de  votre  aimable  in- 
vitation a  nous  faire  representer  aux  fetes  jubilaires  par  les- 
quelles  votre  Uni^  ersite  celebrera  du  11  au  15  octobre  prochain 
le  150'"^  anniversaire  de  sa  fondation.  Nous  attachons  a  cette 
attention  le  plus  grand  prix,  bien  que  par  suite  de  di verses  cir- 
constances  et  a  notre  grand  regret  il  ne  nous  soit  pas  possible 
de  vous  le  temoigner  par  I'envoi  d'une  delegation.  Mais  la  dis- 
tance geographique  n'est  heureusement  un  obstacle  ni  a  la 
diffusion  de  la  pensee  ni  a  la  confraternite  scientifique.  Nous 
vous  presentons  done  dans  le  sentiment  de  cette  confraternite 
qui  nous  associe  a  votre  joie  nos  felicitations  les  plus  vives  et 
nous  formulons  les  vckux  les  meilleurs  et  les  plus  chaleureux 
pour  la  prosperite  continue  de  votre  Universite.  Elle  a  contribue 
pendant  un  siecle  et  demi  au  progres  de  la  haute  culture  et 
les  services  qu'elle  lui  a  rendus  dans  le  passe  sont  le  gage 
assure  de  ceux  qu'elle  lui  rendra  encore  dans  I'avenir.  In  Deo 
Speramus. 

Veuillez  agreer,  Monsieur  le  Recteur  et  Messieurs,  avec 
tous  nos  remerciements  1' expression  de  nos  sentiments  les  plus 
devoues. 

Au  nom  du  Senat  de  I'Universite  de  Neuchatel 

Le  Recteiir^ 
Beguelin 
Le  Secretaire^ 

A.  DUBIED 


[   283   ] 


Brown  University 


[  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  ] 

The  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College  to  the  President 
and  Corporation  of  Brown  University,  Greeting: 

BROWN  University  and  the  sons  she  has  sent  forth  have 
rendered  services  that  have  earned  the  gratitude  of  the 
nation  and  of  her  sister  universities. 

Gladly  availing  themselves,  therefore,  of  the  invitation  of  the 
President  and  Corporation  of  Brown  University,  the  President 
and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College  have  appointed  Abbott  Law- 
rence Lowell,  their  President,  Frank  William  Taussig,  Pro- 
fessor of  Economics,  and  Francis  Rawle,  a  distinguished  grad- 
uate, to  represent  them  at  the  Celebration  of  the  One  Hundred 
and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Foundation  of  the  University. 

Given  at  Cambridge  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  October,  in 
the  year  of  Our  Lord  nineteen  hundred  and  fourteen,  and  of 
Harvard  College  the  two  hundred  and  seventy-eighth. 

A.  Lawrence  Lowell 
(SeaC)  President 


C   284   ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNrv'ERsrrv  of  Pennsylvania  ] 

Universitas  Pennsylvaniensis  Universitati  Brunensi  S.P.  D. 

VOBIS  gratulamur  viri  illustrissimi,  quod  Universitas 
vestra,  per  totum  orbem  terrarum  optimo  iure  celebrata, 
ad  annum  centensimum  quinquagensimum  feliciter  pervenit; 
quod  nos  quoque  feriarum  vestrarum  participes  esse  voluisti 
gratias  agimus  plurimas. 

Speramus  omnes  et  fidem  habemus  fore  ut  Universitas  ves- 
tra per  multa  saecula  floreat,  semper  crescente  gloria. 

Edgar  F  .  Smith 
QSeal^  Praefectus 

ELdward  Robins 

Si^illi  Custos 


Datum  Philadelphiae :   a.d.  X  Kalendas  Octobris^  anno  Domini  MD 
CCCCXIV 


C:   285   ] 


Brown  University 


I  PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY   J 

VNIVERSITATI  Brvnensi  filiaenostraespectataedilectae 
qvam  olim  peperit  mater  advlescentvla  nvnc  avtem  post 
mvltos  dies  grandaevam  immo  fere  aeqvaevam  aliam  atqve 
eandem  laeta  recognoscit  qvam  etiam  meminit  primo  sibi  aedi- 
ficantem  habitacvlvm  domvi  matris  similem  deinde  domvm 
svam  fideliter  servantem  avgentem  thesavrosqve  sapientiae 
avro  pretiosiores  ibi  filiis  svis  manibvs  plenis  exhibentem  com- 
mendantem  impertientem  adeo  vt  hodie  magnopere  ditentvr 
ecclesia  academia  respvblica  favsta  felicia  fortvnata  in  scientia 
promovenda  in  repvblica  servienda  in  fide  Christi  stabilienda 
donee  cvrsvs  vester  consvmmetvr  consalvtantes  exoptamvs 
praeses  cvratores  professores  Vniversitatis  Princetoniensis. 

John  Grier  Hibben 

Praeses 


Dabamvs  Princetoniae  in  Avla  Nassovica  Kal.  Oct.  a.s.  MCMXIV 


[   286   ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  RUTGERS  COLLEGE  ] 

THE  President,  Trustees  and  Faculty,  of  Rutgers  College 
in  New  Jersey  give  greeting  to  Brown  University  on  oc- 
casion of  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its  found- 
ing. Sincere  congratulations  are  extended  to  the  University  on 
the  distinguished  fulfillment  of  academic  usefulness  through 
so  many  years.  The  Colonial  College  next  in  order  of  found- 
ing unites  in  the  joy  of  the  present  celebration  and  in  the  hope 
for  coming  years :  and  in  token  of  its  ancient  and  enduring 
fellow  ship  presents  a  copy  of  its  own  royal  charter. 


Ne7v  Bninsxvick^  Nexv  Jersey^  October  \2th^  1914 


[  287  :i 


Brown  University 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  PITTSBURGH  ] 

THE  University  of  Pittsburgh,  now  in  its  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eighth  year  as  a  Chartered  Academy,  and  in  its 
ninety-sixth  year  as  a  University  of  Higher  Learning,  sends 
greetings  to  Brown  University  on  the  historic  occasion  of  the 
celebration  of  its  One  hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary,  and 
joins  the  other  Colleges  and  Universities  of  America  in  extend- 
ing congratulations  upon  the  completion  of  so  long  and  so  hon- 
orable a  period  of  history.  In  the  name  of  the  Trustees  and 
Faculties,  the  University  of  Pittsburgh  conveys  to  Brown  Uni- 
versity good  wishes  for  continued  and  increased  usefulness  and 
prosperity,  expresses  the  earnest  hope  that  the  noble  aims  and 
high  ambitions  for  the  future  may  be  abundantly  realized,  and 
appoints  Chancellor  Samuel  Black  McCormick  to  attend  the 
exercises  at  Providence,  and  in  person  to  present  their  felicita- 
tions, properly  engrossed,  on  the  day  appointed  for  this  purpose. 


Pittsburgh^  Pennsi/lvania^  October  twelfth^  Nineteen  hundred  fourteen 


C  288  ;] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[   UNIVERSITY  OF  VERMONT  ] 

TO  Brown  University  on  the  happy  occasion  which  cele- 
brates the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  year  of  its  existence 
the  Trustees  and  Faculties  of  the  University  of  Vermont 
bring  assurances  of  educational  good  will  and  sincere  congrat- 
ulations on  a  record  of  splendid  accomplishments  with  the 
earnest  hope  for  a  constantly  enlarging  prosperity  to  guaran- 
tee continuing  honor  in  the  American  Republic  of  letters. 

Guy  Potter  Benton 

President  of  the  University 
Edmund  P.  Mower 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Tnistees 


Burlington^  Vermont^  the  fourteenth  day  of  October^  A.D.  nineteen  hun- 
dredfourteen 


[  289  :i 


Brown  University 


[  ANDOVER  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY   ] 

THE  Faculty  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary  extend  to 
their  honored  colleagues,  the  Faculty  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity, sincere  congratulations  upon  this  high  academic  festi- 
val, by  which  the  University  celebrates  the  completion  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  meritorious  service  to  the  cause  of 
higher  education. 

In  fidelity  to  the  cherished  traditions  of  the  colony  and  of 
the  churches  w^hich  the  Rhode  Island  College  was  created  to 
serve,  the  institution  was  dedicated  by  its  founders  to  the 
untrammeled  pursuit  of  truth,  and  its  charter  guaranteed  to 
all  its  members  ' '  absolute  and  uninterrupted  liberty  of  con- 
science." 

Through  a  century  and  a  half,  with  ever  enlarging  facili- 
ties and  broadening  view,  the  college  has  amply  rewarded  the 
confidence  of  its  benefactors,  and  has  more  than  fulfilled  the 
expectations  of  its  friends.  It  finds  to-day,  in  its  own  honor- 
able history,  the  surest  pledge  of  a  still  greater  future. 

To  Andover  Theological  Seminary  from  its  very  beginning 
have  come  graduates  of  Brown  University  in  an  almost  un- 
broken stream,  and  the  names  of  two  successive  presidents 
of  the  University, — Wayland  and  Sears,  —  stand  enrolled 
among  the  Seminary's  former  students.  May  the  ties  thus 
uniting  the  t^^'0  institutions  prove  to  be  strong  and  enduring. 

The  Andover  Faculty  wish  for  the  University  long  contin- 
ued prosperity  and  ever  increasing  success  in  the  educational 
service  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  nation  and  the  world. 


C  290  ;] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITV   ] 

iV<rrf  2'ori  University^  ^^ffi^^  of  the  Chancellor 
Washingt07i  Square^  Nexv  York 

ON  the  occasion  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anni- 
versary of  the  founding  of  the  great  institution  of  learn- 
ing which  for  many  years  has  borne  the  name  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, a  sister  institution,  New  York  University,  in  the  City 
of  New  York,  sends  greetings  and  feHcitations.  These  two  in- 
stitutions are  bound  together  by  many  ties,  by  many  common 
sentiments  and  aspirations.  The  consciousness  of  such  high 
academic  fellowship  gives  to  us  a  a  peculiar  interest  in  the 
greetings  which  w^e  send  by  our  chosen  delegate.  Professor 
Marshall  S.Brown,  Master  of  Arts,  Professor  of  History  and 
Political  Science,  a  graduate  of  Brown  University,  of  the  Class 
of  Eighteen  Hundred  and  Ninety-two. 

Elmer  Ellsworth  Brown 

Chancellor 

George  C.  Sprague 

Registrar 


Nexv  York  City^  October  the  twelfth^  Nineteen  hundred  and  fourteen 


C    291     ^ 


Brown  University 


[  UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  ] 

President's  Room.,  Union  Theological  Seminary 
Broadway  at  120th  street^  Neiv  York 

THE  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  the  City  of  New 
York  offers  its  hearty  congratulations  to  Brown  Univer- 
sity on  its  long  and  useful  life  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Brown  University,  from  the  very  beginning,  established  a 
high  educational  purpose,  and  has  maintained  that  purpose 
throughout  its  history,  according  to  the  best  understanding  of 
educational  theory  and  practice  in  the  successive  generations. 

Situated  in  the  State  of  Roger  Williams,  it  has  imbibed  as 
of  right  the  spirit  of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  which  is  in- 
dispensable to  our  national  ideals  and  national  progress.  It  has 
proved,  also,  that  religious  liberty  is  not  the  same  thing  with 
indifference  to  religion.  While  its  graduates  are  found  in  all 
the  higher  walks  of  life,  including  each  of  the  historic  profes- 
sions, we  feel  impelled  on  the  present  occasion  to  recognize  its 
contributions  to  the  great  company  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel 
who  have  rendered  conspicuous  service  to  Church  and  State 
in  the  last  century  and  a  half,  and  service  devoted  and  un- 
failing, whether  conspicuous  or  not,  to  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
brethren  in  every  climate  and  country  of  the  world,  —  the  suc- 
cession of  whom,  as  we  have  good  reason  to  know,  shews  no 
signs  of  failing. 

Union  Seminary  unites  with  educational  foundations,  far 
and  wide,  in  felicitating  Brown  University  on  its  venerable  and 
brilliant  past,  and  in  wishing  for  it,  under  the  blessing  of  God, 
a  yet  more  notable  and  serviceable  future. 

On  behalf  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  the  City 
of  New  York, 

Francis  Brown 
President  of  the  Faculty 
October  fourteenth.,  Nineteen  fourteen 

C  292  ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  MICHIGAN  ] 

To  the  President  and  Corporation  of  Brown  University : 

THE  Regents,  President  and  Faculties  of  the  University 
of  Michigan  beg  to  return  their  thanks  to  you  for  the 
invitation  to  the  Celebration  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth 
Anniversary  of  the  founding  of  Brown  University. 

We  rejoice  with  you  in  the  record  of  its  long  and  useful 
history.  We  congratulate  you  on  the  prospect  of  the  brilliant 
future  which  now  awaits  it.  We  wish  especially  to  express 
our  gratitude  to  Brown  for  its  distinguished  graduate  who 
for  nearly  forty  years  directed  so  successfully  as  President  the 
affairs  of  the  University  of  Michigan  and  for  the  eminent 
teachers  whom  it  has  furnished  to  our  Faculties.  They  have 
contributed  much  to  the  reputation  and  influence  of  this  Uni- 
versity arid  have  given  us  for  many  years  a  deep  and  abiding 
interest  in  your  prosperity. 

Harry  B.  Hutchins 

President 


University  of  Michigan^  October  7,  1914 


C   293   '2 


Brown  University 


[  OHIO  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY  ] 

To  Brown  University,  upon  the  completion  of  One  Hundred 
and  Fifty  Years  of  History,  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  University 
sends  Greeting: 

YOU  have  a  word  inscribed  in  your  charter  and  ilkistrated 
in  your  history  that  is  very  dear  to  us.  Because  of  your 
declaration  of  devotion  to  "full,  free,  absolute,  and  uninter- 
rupted liberty  of  Conscience, ' '  you  have  earned  the  applause  of 
patriots,  scholars,  and  saints.  You  have  quickened  to  heartier 
zeal  all  who  covet  an  unchained  mind  and  a  heart  of  fire. 

In  this  day,  when  a  small  State  aflame  with  a  noble  idea  in- 
vites the  gaze  of  men,  we  are  constrained  to  recite  for  our  own 
inspiration  the  story  of  a  State  and  a  University  in  whose  mu- 
tual honors  there  have  been  intermingled  the  names  of  states- 
men like  Stephen  Hopkins,  soldiers  like  Greene,  sailors  like 
Perry,  educators  like  Wayland,  and  apostles  like  Judson;  all 
of  whom  have  in  their  turn  drunk  at  the  same  fountain  with 
the  hero  and  pioneer,  Roger  Williams,  who  laid  your  founda- 
tion and  foretold  your  future.  May  that  future  be  all  that  your 
past  has  pledged. 

Herbert  Welch 

President 


Delaware^  Ohio^  October  14,  1914 


C    294   ] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  ^\'ISCONSIN  ] 

THE  University  of  Wisconsin  congratulates  Brown  Uni- 
versity on  the  completion  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  service  to  the  cause  of  academic  freedom. 

Established  in  the  home  of  American  religious  tolerance, 
and  by  the  descendants  of  those  who  first  formulated  the  prin- 
ciples of  relation  of  church  and  state,  which  have  been  the 
protection  of  both,  Bro\vn  University  was  the  first  American 
college  founded  upon  the  principles  of  religious  toleration;  and 
she  has,  throughout  her  history,  shown  a  sympathetic  com- 
prehension Avhich  has  made  her  the  acceptable  alma  mater  of 
notable  religious  leaders  of  many  denominations  and  modes  of 
thought.  To  the  career  of  statesmanship  she  has  dedicated  a 
Wheaton,  a  Marcy,  and  a  Hay,  who  have  stood  at  the  head  of 
that  developing  international  opinion  which  we  hope  may  lead 
to  peace  on  earth.  In  education  Wayland  fostered  the  elective 
system,  Angell  has  developed  the  machinery  of  the  great  state 
university,  and  Andrews  has  cultivated  that  personal  leader- 
ship of  men  which  is  the  crown  of  all  our  educational  efforts. 
In  particular,  the  University  of  Wisconsin  wishes  to  express 
its  gratitude  to  Brown  University  for  the  large  number  of  men 
she  has  contributed  to  her  upbuilding. 

The  University  of  Wisconsin  rejoices  that  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  activity  have  brought  constantly  increasing  vigor 
to  Brown  University  and  she  justifiably  hopes  for  even  greater 
contributions  to  the  national  life  and  happiness  in  the  future 
than  in  the  past. 

Charles  R.  Van  Hise 
("SVa/)  President 


c  295 ;] 


Brown  University 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  ] 

Senatus  Academicus  Universitatis  Californiensis  Universitati 
Brunensi  Salutem: 

CUM  UniversitasBrunensis centum  et  quinquaginta  annos 
vixerit  et  lucem  doctrinae  per  saecula  miserit  super  terras, 
et  nunc  sollemnia  celebratura  sit,  nos  multis  annis  iuiores  et 
in  extremis  finibus  patriae  communis  collocati  tamen  laetitiae 
et  gaudii  participes  volumus  esse.  Itaque  misimus  collegam 
nostrum  virumque  dilectissimum  Carolum  Copping  Plehn, 
Philosophias  Doctorem  et  apud  nos  Cameralium  Professorem 
necnon  academiae  vestrae  alumnum  dignissimum  qui  praesens 
ipse  gratulationes  nostras  adferat. 

Per  saecula  multa  Universitas  Brunensis  floreat  et  crescat. 

Data  die  xxiii  mensis  Septembris  anni  MDCCCCXIV  et 
manu  Praesidis  nostri  subscripta  et  sigilli  Universitatis  Cali- 
forniensis munita. 

Benj  .  Ide  Wheeler 
(jSeaf)  Prxses 


v<^,;x 


jw 


c  ^96-:\ 


Congratulatory  Addresses 

[  CORNELL  UNIVERSITY  ] 

THE  Faculty  of  Cornell  University  hereby  extends  hearti- 
est congratulations  to  Brown  University  on  its  comple- 
tion of  a  century  and  a  half  of  distinguished  success  in  the 
cause  of  education.  Cradled  at  the  dawn  of  the  new  epoch 
which  marked  our  beginnings  as  a  nation,  Brown  has  ever 
held  fast  to  the  highest  and  best  in  our  national  life.  Her  sons 
have  lent  lustre  not  only  to  the  College  but  to  the  entire  coun- 
try as  well.  The  names  of  Wayland  in  education,  of  Judson  in 
missionary  endeavor,  of  Hay  in  diplomacy  are  those  of  which 
any  institution,  any  nation,  may  well  be  proud. 

Between  Brown  and  Cornell  there  have  long  existed  the 
closest  ties.  Several  of  our  most  distinguished  and  honored 
teachers  have  come  to  us  wdth  the  Brown  training  and  the 
Brown  traditions,  while  one  of  our  Faculty  was  called  from  a 
professor's  chair  at  Ithaca  to  assume  the  high  post  of  Presi- 
dent of  your  University. 

It  is  our  fervent  wish  that  the  coming  centuries  may  con- 
tinue to  crown  with  success  the  noble  aspirations  and  faithful 
labors  of  Bro\A'n  University. 

To  bear  these  our  felicitations  and  to  join  with  you  in  cele- 
brating the  achievements  of  Brown's  past  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  we  have  appointed  as  delegates,  the  President  of 
the  University,  Jacob  Gould  Schurman,  and  Charles  Edwin 
Bennett,  one  of  your  own  alumni. 

J.  G.  Schurman 
(■Sra/)  ,  President 

Wm.  a.  Hammond 
iSecretary  of  the  University  Faculty 


Ithaca^  Nexv  Tork^  October  1,  1914 

C   297  U 


Brown  University 


[  WELLS  COLLEGE  ] 

Udells  College^  Aiirora-on-Cayuga^  Nerv  York 

President's  Office 

THE  Trustees  and  Faculty  of  Wells  College  extend  to 
Brown  University  their  warm  felicitations  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its  foun- 
dation, and  express  the  hope  that  the  devotion  to  freedom  and 
the  pursuit  of  knowledge  that  characterized  its  earliest  history 
and  determined  its  course  unto  the  present  may  continue,  to 
the  end  that,  under  God's  guidance,  it  may  live,  grow,  and 
flourish  through  many  centuries. 

Kerr  D.  Macmillan 

President 


I    298    J 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  ] 

To  the  President  and  Corporation  of  Brown  University  the 
President  and  Trustees  of  the  University  of  Chicago : 

ONE  of  the  youngest  among  universities,  the  University 
of  Chicago,  with  profound  admiration  for  the  long  and 
honorable  record  of  one  of  the  oldest  American  collegiate  foun- 
dations, extends  to  Brown  University  congratulations  on  the 
happy  completion  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  service  to 
the  republic.  Though  crowned  with  the  venerable  dignity  of 
age.  Brown  University  retains  the  freshness  and  vigor  of  youth . 
May  she  increase  in  the  years  to  come  the  noble  reputation 
she  has  gained  in  the  years  that  are  past ! 

James  R.  Angell 

Vice-  President 

J.  Spencer  Dickerson 

•Secretary 


Chicago^  October^  Nineteen  Hundred  Fourteen 


C   '^99  ] 


Brown  University 


[  RHODE  ISLAND  STATE  COLLEGE  ] 

Rhode  Island  State  College  to  the  President  and  Corporation 
of  Brown  University,  Greeting : 

ON  behalf  of  Rhode  Island  State  College,  its  Board  of  Man- 
agers, its  Faculty,  and  its  Students,  we,  delegates  ap- 
pointed for  that  purpose,  extend  to  Brown  University  on  the 
occasion  of  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its 
founding,  the  heartiest  congratulations  and  good  wishes. 
Wherever  sound  learning  and  intellectual  achievement  are 
known  and  honored,  there  the  name  of  Brown  University  is 
revered.  As  a  constructive  factor  in  the  life  of  the  state — 
economic,  social,  and  spiritual — the  value  of  its  work  and 
influence,  co-extensive  as  it  is  with  the  existence  of  the  state 
itself,  is  simply  inestimable.  To  us,  modest  co-workers  in  the 
same  field,  its  long  and  illustrious  career  is  both  an  asset  and 
an  inspiration ;  its  continued  prosperity  a  matter  of  earnest 
desire  and  confident  trust.  As  in  all  its  past,  so  in  the  hurry- 
ing years  to  come,  may  it  ever  continue  and  renew  its  youth 
in  new  effort  and  achievement  for  the  state,  for  humanity,  and 
for  God. 

Zenas  W.  Bliss 
{Seal}  Howard  Edwards 

Delegates^  Rhode  Island  State  College 


October  fourteenth^  Nineteen  hundred  and  fourteen 


C  300  ;] 


Congratulatory  Addresses 


[  RICE  INSTITUTE  ] 

IN  response  to  the  hospitable  invitation  of  the  President  and 
Corporation  of  Brown  University  requesting  the  presence 
of  a  delegate  from  the  Faculty  or  Governing  Board  of  the  Rice 
Institute  at  exercises  in  celebration  of  the  one  hundred  and 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  University,  to  be 
held  at  Providence  in  thcAveek  beginning  Sunday,  the  eleventh 
day  of  October,  nineteen  hundred  and  fourteen,  the  President 
and  Trustees  of  the  Rice  Institute  have  pleasure  in  notifying 
the  Committee  on  the  Academic  Celebration  that  Edgar  Odell 
Lovett  of  Houston,  Texas,  President  of  the  Institute,  has  been 
asked  to  represent  the  new  foundation  at  the  Sesquicentennial 
Festival  of  Brown  University,  and  to  convey  to  the  authori- 
ties of  that  ancient  seminary  of  liberal  and  technical  learning 
cordial  expressions  of  good  will  and  congratulations  from 
the  youngest  of  institutions  dedicated  to  the  advancement  of 
Letters,  Science,  and  Art. 

EIdgar  Odell  Lovett 
(Seal^  President 


C  301  ^ 


IV 

The  Courses  of  Lectures 


The  Courses  of  Lectures 

COURSES  of  lectures  by  distinguislied  American 
and  European  scholars  were  given  at  the  Univer- 
sity during  the  fall  and  winter  of  1914-15.  Some  of  the 
lectures  will  in  due  time  be  published  in  further  com- 
memoration of  the  Sesquicentennial.  The  President  and 
Corporation  tendered  receptions  to  the  lecturers  at  the 
John  Carter  Brown  Library. 

Professor  William  Henry  Bragg,  A. M.,F.R.S., Pro- 
fessor of  Physics  in  the  University  of  Leeds,  gave  four 
lectures  in  Sayles  Hall,  during  the  month  of  Novem- 
ber, upon  "  X-Rays  and  Crystals/' Immediately  pre- 
ceding the  last  lecture  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science 
was  conferred  upon  Professor  Bragg  in  special  convo- 
cation. The  Corporation  and  Faculty  were  in  attend- 
ance in  academic  costume.  Professor  Dunning  acting 
as  marshal.  Professor  Carl  Barus,  Hazard  Professor  of 
Physics,  in  presenting  Professor  Bragg,  said  of  him: 
"His  first  great  research  on  the  character  and  history 
of  the  X  or  positive  rays  of  radium  drew  upon  him  the 
attention  of  scholars  in  physical  science  throughout  the 
world.  With  characteristic  energy  and  with  the  cooper- 
ation of  his  son,  he  has  since  distanced  all  other  savants 
by  his  almost  prophetic  insight  into  the  complexities 
of  atomic  architecture.  His  predictions  have  invariably 
been  found  correct.  It  is  through  his  intuition  and  dis- 
cernment that  the  foundations  of  the  newest,  the  most 
alluring,  and  the  most  promising  of  the  recent  depar- 
tures of  physics  have  been  laid, once  for  all  time. "Presi- 
dent Faunce,  in  conferring  the  degree,  expressed  the 
honor  the  University  had  in  presenting  him  with  this 
mark  of  its  esteem.  Professor  Bragg,  after  thanking 

C  305  ] 


Brown  University 

President  Faunce,  the  Faculty,  and  the  Corporation, 
turning  to  the  audience,  said:  "  I  am  deeply  grateful  to 
the  many  kind  friends  who  have  rendered  me  so  many 
courtesies  and  made  my  stay  so  pleasant  here.  I  shall 
always  be  proud  of  being  admitted  to  the  fellowship  of 
the  University  and  the  community." 

Paul  Shorey,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Greek  in 
the  University  of  Chicago,  gave  two  lectures  in  Sayles 
Hall  during  the  months  of  November  and  Decem- 
ber. On  November  30  Professor  Shorey  lectured  upon 
"Interpretations  of  Greek  Literature  and  History," 
on  December  7,  upon  "Latin  Poetry  and  European 
Culture." 

Alexander  Crombie  Humphreys,  Sc.D.,  LL.D., 
President  of  the  Stevens  Institute  of  Technology,  gave 
a  course  of  two  lectures  in  Sayles  Hall,  on  January  4 
and  11,  upon  "Broader  Training  for  the  Engineer." 

Frank  William  Taussig,Ph.D.,Professor  of  Political 
Economy  in  Harvard  University, delivered  two  lectures 
in  Sayles  Hall,  on  February  8  and  15,  upon  " Some  Re- 
lations between  Psychology  and  Economics." 

J.  Franklin  Jameson,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Director  of  the 
Bureau  of  Historical  Research  in  the  Carnegie  Insti- 
tution, gave  a  lecture  in  Sayles  Hall, on  February  25, 
upon  "American  Blood  in  1775." 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  A.M.,  Professor  of  English  Lit- 
erature in  Oxford  University,  gave  a  course  of  four 
lectures,  on  March  22,  25,  29,  and  on  April  1 ,  in  Sayles 
Hall,  upon  "Chaucer."  Before  the  concluding  lecture 
the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Letters  was  con- 
ferred upon  Professor  Raleigh  in  special  convocation. 
Professor  Dunning  acting  as  marshal  of  the  academic 
procession.  The  Brown  Faculty  and  many  members  of 

[  306  2 


The  Courses  of  Lectures 

the  Corporation  were  in  attendance.  In  presenting  Pro- 
fessor Raleigh,  Professor  Walter  C.  Bronson  said  of 
him  :  '*  He  belongs  to  the  class  of  critics,  at  once  judicial 
and  imaginative,  who  pierce  through  the  shell  to  the 
fruit,  without,  however,  despising  the  shell  that  holds 
and  conserves  the  fruit.  He  accepts  with  gratitude  the 
facts  established  by  laborious  scholarship,  but  his  chief 
concern  is  to  make  the  dry  bones  live.  He  has  shown 
once  more  that  if  a  writer  have  insight  and  style,  it  is 
still  possible,  even  while  handling  well-worn  themes, 
to  say  things  both  fresh  and  true.  The  most  conspic- 
uous feature  of  all  his  criticism  is  its  human  quality. 
By  his  broad  and  quick  sympathies,  by  his  catholic  and 
wholesome  moral  view,  and  by  his  genial  humor  play- 
ing upon  human  nature  and  illuminating  while  it  de- 
lights, he  carries  conviction  that  literature  is  not  a  thing 
apart  from  life,  but  one  of  the  deepest  and  truest  inter- 
pretations of  it."  President  Faunce  in  conferring  the 
degree  welcomed  Professor  Raleigh  "as  a  member  of 
this  society  of  scholars,  associated  henceforth  with  us 
in  the  pursuit  of  truth  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge 
throughout  the  world/' 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


^'^ 


OCT     8    1947 


MAY  28  1962 

MOV  251966  88 
'W^H'66      f?co 


LD  21-100m-12,'46(A2012sl6)4120 


YD   ICCS4 


W!» 


:Mr::-'  "■:■    "/>./J 


314067 


LBLHL. 


/o 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


